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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






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STUDIES IN 



PEDAGOGY 



BY 



Professor of F»Er>A«OGY in i'he Korthkrn 
Indiana Normal School. 



M. E. BOtJARTE, PUBLISHER. 

VALPARAISO. INDIANA. 

iseo. 



TWO COPIES RECEIVED, 

Library of Congrofii, 
Offlaa of tba 

FEB 3 - 1900 

Regl>tar of Copyrlfj^hf^ 

L 6/0^5 
M3^ 



5:^>7B7 



COPYRIGHT 1890. 
BV GEO. W. >rEET. 






PREFACE. 

It is fully appreciated that there are many books 
written during- the present times for which there not 
only is no demand, but for which there is no excuse. 
The present little volume is not born of any desire to 
produce a book on pedagogy better than any yet writ- 
ten. It is, however, prompted by a desire to choose 
from the field of pedagogical science material well 
adapted to a special class of students, with which the 
writer has to deal in his daily teaching. 

The field of pedagogy is so large that material 
must be selected from it for those students who are 
just beginning the study of pedagogy. So it has been 
the aim in this little volume to select from this broad 
field and organize such material as is best adapted to 
students beginning this line of work. At the same 
time material has been selected whose study, it is 
believed, will be of substantial worth to teachers in 
giving them an insight into the nature of the teach- 
er's profession as well as knowledge valuable for 
guidance in teaching. While simplicity has been 
aimed at as much as possible, no effort has been 
made to avoid the most fundamental problems of 
pedagogy. 



rV PREFACE. 

This book is prepared for the special purpose of 
use as a text- book in my own classes. Much which 
is the result of the most recent investi^aticms along 
pedagogical lines is here arranged in a teachable and 
convenient form. Thus the study is brought up to 
date. 

An effort lias been made to show where the pres- 
ent studies articulate with psychology, child-study 
and methods. G. W. N. 



CONTENTS, 

Introduction, - ix.-x. 

CHAPTER I. 

The School, ------ 11-21 

The Beginniuo- Point, - - - - 11 

The Nature ot the School, - - - - 11 

Oi'igin of the School. - - - - 11 

Differentiation of Institutions, . - - 15 

Ditt'erentiation in the School, - - - l(j 

The Elements of the School. - - - - IH 

The Pupil; The Teacher: The Curriculum. - 19 

The Organization— the Law of Unity. - - 20 

Law; Urfity, . . . - - 20 
Further Material for Study, - - - - 21 

CHAPTER II. 

The Work the School Has to Do, - 22-33 

The Problem, . . . . - 22 

The Problem Answered, - - - - 22 

Complete Living; Rational Freedom: Harmony 

of Intense Individual Life, etc.: Strong Moral 

Character, . . . - 22-25 

Importance of Right View, - - - 2(i 

What the Primary Aim of Education Is Not, - 28 

What the Primary Aim of Education Is, - 29 

CHAPTER III. 

The Physical NATUiiE of the Child, 34-51 



Importance of Its Study, 


- 


34 


Food, 


- 


- 3fi 


Clothing, . - . 


- 


38 


School-room Conditions, 


- 


- 41 


Ventilation; Temperature; 


Lighting: 


Seating 


Cleanliness, 


- 


41-4(5 


The Sense Organs, 


- 


47 


Hearing: Seeing. 


- 


4(»-:)l 



VI CONTKM'S. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Spiritual Nature op the Child, 52-66 

An Attribute, ----- ."i^ 

Consciousness, - - - - - r)2 

Attention, ------ 53 

Apperception, ------ ,");") 

Self-Activit}', - - . - - ;"»(> 

Iterativeness, - - - - - - -Ti 

Rhythm, ------ 58 

Activities of the Mind. ----- 59 

Knowing;, - - - - .59 

Knowing, Discriminating and Unifying: All 

Knowing Indirect. - - - til 

Feeling, - - - . - - (il 

Love; Hate: Indifference, - - - <i3 

Willing. ------ (14 

CHAPTER V. 

The Spiritual Nature of the Child, - 67-78 

The Three Stages of Knowing, - - - (iT 

Purpose of Classification, - - - 68 

Sense-perception, - - - - - H8 

The Sensation, - - - - - 09 

Memory, - - - - - - 7(» 

The Law of Memory, - - - .71 

Imagination. - - - - - - 7l! 

Conception, - - - . - . 7.) 

Method of Foi'ming ('oncepts; - - 74 

The Logical Steps, . . - . 7.-) 

.Judgment, ------ 7.", 

Reasoning, - - - - - - 7<i 

The Syllogism, - - - - - 77 

The Syllogistic Figures, - • - 77 

Classes of Reasoning, - - - - 78 

CHAPTER VI. 
The School Curriculum, - - - 7lt-l(>4 

Meaning of the Term, - - - - 79 

Origin of the Curriculum, - - - 80 

The (irowth in the Curriculum. - - 82 

A Kational Curriculum, - - - - 85 

Till' I'ui-posc of the Educating I'l'occss. • • 85 



'V, 



CONTENTS. VII 



Manner of Api^lying the Test, - - - 86 

Difficulty of'Task: The First Step, - 87 

The Order of Importance of These Lines, 87 

The Rational Order of Education, - - 89 

The Second Step, . . . . 89 

Value of Knowledge getting-, - - 90 

Thoughts Necessary to a Systematic Study, etc., 91 

Disciplinary Value Not Antagonistic, etc.. - 91 

Direct Self-preservation, - - - - 9;^ 

Indirect Self-preservation. - - - 95 

The Rearing of a Family. . - - . 9(^ 

Man's Duties in Social Institutions, - ■ 98 

Spending Leisure Time, .... jqo 

Most Valuable Knowledge, - - - 101 

Religious Aspect of Science, - - - 102 

Child-study and the Curriculum, - - 102 

Changes Suggested by Child Psychology, - 103 

CHAPTER VII. 
The Teacher. - - . . . 105-133 

Importance of the Teacher, - - - 105 

Duties of the Teacher, c - ■ - - loii 

Governing; Teaching,' - - - 10(1-108 

Characteristics of the Teacher, - - - - 109 

Necessary Characteristics, - - - 109 

Strong Moral Character, - - 109 

Knowledge of Right and Wrong; Trutli- 
fulness; Honesty; Justness; Habits of 
Activity; Self-control, - 111-115 

Scholarship, .... 110^ 

i/Professional Preparation, - - 117 - 

A Knowledge of the Laws of Life; Pur- 
pose of Education: Knowledge of 
Methods; Practice in the Art of Teach- 
ing, - - . . 117-12(3 
Energetic Student Habits, - - 126 
Daily Preparation, - - - 128 
Love of Occupation, - - - 128 
Sympathy, - - - - 129 
Desirable Characteristics, - - - 131 
Good Health, Natural Aptitude, Personal 
Magnetism, Mastery of Circumstances. 131-i;5;j 
CHAPTER VIII. 
The Management op the School, - 134-160 

The School an Organization, - . - l.U 



VITT CONTENTS. 



The Fundamental Law, - - - 13") 

Source of the Law; Phases of the Law, 13()-1.*{7 
In Organism; Between Teacher and 
Learner; Between Learner's Real and 
Ideal Self, - - - 138-145 

Unifying- Conditions, - - - 145 

In the Organism as a Whole; Between Teacher 
and Pupils, - - . - 146-148 

Personal Contact; Comfoi't of Teacher and 
Pupils, - - - - 148-151 

Minimizing Diverting Influences, - - 151 

Between the Pupil's Real and Ideal Self. - 154 
Pure Motives: Incentives: Social Influences, 

154-158 

Broken Unity, ----- 158 

Restoration of Unity, - - - 158 

School Punishments, - - - 159 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Process in the Teaching Act, — Method, 

161-183 

The Teaching Act, ... - 161 

Process in It - - - - - 161 

Nature of Method; Definition of: Classes, 162-163 

The Learner's Method: The Teacher's 

Method: Method as a Physical Process, 163-177 

Comparison of Teacher's and Pupil's Method, 177 

Two Views of Method: Factors Determining 

Method, - - - - 178-183 

CHAPTER X. 

The Recitation, ----- 184-198 

Nature of, - - - - " - 184 

Purpose of, - - - " 1^4 

To Bring the Pupil's and Teacher's Mind in 
Touch: To Test the Pupil's Preparation; Sup- 
plementing Knowledge; Giving Right Methods 
of Study: Encouraging, Inspiring, and Stimu- 
lating: ■ - - - - 185-187 
The Law of, - - - 188 
Teacher's Preparation for, - - 190 
Manner of Conducting, - - - - 192 
.Vssignments, - - ■ ' ' 197 
( :ommon Errors in Conducting, - - - 198 



INTRODUCTION, 

Pedof/of/]/. — This word is sometimes thought to 
name some particular school subject, the study of 
which will enable those who wish to teach school to 
do their work better than they could do it without 
such study. It is thought by some who have given it 
no special attention to name a subject as definite, 
with regard to the truths it teaches, as arithmetic, 
grammar, or physiology. Such, however, is a wrong 
conception of the meaning of the term peclagogi/, 
as well as a wrong conception of the nature of the 
subject. Pedagogy is a term which names a group 
of subjects that have to do with both the science and 
art of education, and is not properly to be thought as 
naming any particular subject. 

The word pedagofm is derived from the Latin 
word paedagogus, which meant a boy-leader, or a 
child-leader. Prom its original meaning it appears 
that it should mean something that has to do with 
leading children from a condition in which their un- 
preparedness for living is the greatest to one of 
worthy manhood and womanhood. And this is the 
correct use of the term, for it indicates the nature of 
the subject. Used in this sense pedagogy names a 
group of subjects which are called professional sub- 



X INTRODUCTION. 

jects. That is to say, thoy are subjects which 
teachers should study with the special view of be- 
coming more skillful in the art of teaching-. Peda- 
gogy thus embraces pi^iicIiohHin, cliilil-.slndii, me/ hods, 
history of education, and phi/o.soplii/ of educatiort. 

Guyau a French educational writer speaks as 
follows concerning the natui-e of pedagogy: "Peda- 
gogy might be defined as the art of adapting new 
generations to those conditions of life which are the 
most intensive and fruitful for the individual and the 
species." This definitiim emphasizes the art phase 
of i^edagogy, but it also has an important science 
phase. 

It will thus a])pear that the tield of study which 
offers itself to us as teachers is a broad one, and one 
from which materials especially suited to our pur- 
pose must be chosen. It further appears that to be- 
come to any great extent prc^ticient in the study of 
pedagogy will require time. Educational ideals have 
grown till it is no longer believed that one or two 
terms in pedagogy is to be regarded as a panacea for 
all educational ills. This becomes evident when we 
think that to know pedagogy to any great extent is 
to know psychology, child study, methods, history of 
education, and philosophy of education. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE SCHOOL. 

Tlie Beginning Point. — From the view-point of the 
teacher all study of pedagogy centers around and is 
connected with the school. The term pedagogy is 
so closely connected with the school, and they have 
been associated together to such an extent that this 
term always suggests the school in some of its various 
phases. For this reason pedagogy has come to be 
regarded as a strictly professional line of work. A 
more or less extended study of it is the teacher's dis- 
tinctly professional preparation. So as a starting 
place in the study of pedagogy, it seems eminently 
fitting to begin with the school as a whole, since it is 
the institution in which the pupil and teacher meet in 
the educating process. 

The Nature of the School. — Among the ancients the 
school was a place of leisure, but it can scarcely be 
called that now. The school is an organization, but it 
gives us little or no help to know this unless the idea 
of the organization is well understood. 

The study of the human body as a typical ex- 
ample of an organization, or organism, will reveal 
pretty well the thought sought for here. A some- 



12 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

what careful study will show the following points are 
here to be found: 

1. A complex whole, 

2. The whole made up of individual parts. 

3. The parts have a harmonious working rela- 
tion. 

4. The parts all work for one common end. 

5. The whole is self-acting and self-adjusting. 
The body considered as a whole is a one thing, but it 
is complex and not simple or homogeneous. The in- 
dividual parts in this case are the organs of the body, 
— the hands, the feet, the skin, the heart, the stomach, 
etc. All these organs work so as to help one another. 
Thus the hands help to care for the feet; the feet help 
to carry the hands from place to place; the feet and 
hands help to secure food to nourish the skin, heart 
and stomach as well as themselves; the stomach helps 
to digest the food, and the heart pumps the blood 
enriched by the digested food to all parts of the body. 
All these parts do their work in such a way that, 
while each one does its own particular work well, it 
in no way hinders any other part, but also facilitates 
its work. If any part should work against any other 
part for a time, the organism would become impaired; 
if continued, it means the destruction of the organism 
by breaking down the unity of parts. The common 
end for which all the parts here work is the life of the 
body as a whole, which is, also, the life of each part. 
In tlie case of the human body it is worth note tliat it, 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 13 

when out of order, tends to adjust itself, and naturally 
in most cases actually does adjust itself; also, that it 
is self -active. That is, it has the power of originating 
its own activity — the power of causing itself to act. 
This analysis of the human body as an example of an 
organization reveals to us the essential ideas in any 
organization as we wish in our work to think it. 

It will prove beneficial to the student to take 
other examples of the organization and analyze them 
with the purpose of finding the essential ideas in an 
organization. For example, the maple tree, the gera- 
nium, and the family are good types for analysis. 

Then, v/hen we say the school is an organization, 
we are saying it is a collection of individual j^arts, 
self-adjusting and self-acting, working harmoniously 
together for one common end. Thus the pupils, the 
teacher, the school curriculum, the school officers, 
the patrons, etc., are the individual parts; and the 
one common end toward which they are harmoniously 
working is the freedom of the pupils physically, in- 
teUectuaUy, <esthetically, socially, morally and relig- 
iously. 

The school, the church, the family, the state, 
society and business life are organizations that are 
usually called the institutiims. These six institutions 
are the six lines along which civilization has grown. 
A further study of the institution, the school, leads 
us into a discussion of the origin of the institutions, 
and particularly the origin of the school. 



14 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Orlgut of the Schoo/. — The school had its origin in 
what is known as differentiation of institutions. But 
this statement gives us no help unless we have well 
in mind the meaning of differentiation. Herbert 
Spencer tells us that differentiation is the law of all 
progress. That is to say, where differencing or di- 
vision of structure or labor goes on there is progress, 
and where this does not go on progress is not to be 
found. 

Illiistr<iti())i. — The lowest forms of life are small 
animals and plants each consisting of but one small 
cell of protoplasm which does in a w^ay the work that 
all the organs of higher living forms do for them. 
Thus this one cell performs all thefuncticms of diges- 
tion, circulation, assimilation, muscular action, etc., 
that are performed by the organs of higher forms of 
life. In these little living beings there is almost no 
differentiation of structure or function. But a little 
higher form of animal or plant life has many cells, 
some rudimentary digestive organs, and circulatory 
organs; and, also, a rudimentary muscular or sup- 
porting system. The higher up in the scale of animal 
or plant life the more definite are the separate organs, 
and the more is their labor divided. For instance, 
the robin or the primrose each has a definite set of 
organs for the performance of a definite set of func- 
tions. That is to say, they have a high degree of 
differentiation, while the one-celled forms have none 
or almost none. This means progress. For, when 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 15 

an organ has but one kind of work to do, it can do 
that better than it can do many kinds of work be- 
cause it has more energy to spend upon it. 

Di_ttere}ifiati(>)i of Insfitntlona. — There was a time 
in primitive society during the childhood of the race 
when only one of these fundamental instituti(ms of 
civilization Avas in existence. This institution was 
the family. It then had much work to do. It had to 
protect the children from enemies, both wild beasts 
and man, to furnish food, clothing and shelter. It 
had to educate the children in so far as they were 
educated; to furnish religious ser\dces, and provide 
means of enjoyment for leisure hours. With these 
manifold duties to perform the family could not be 
expected to do any of them very weU, and we know 
that was true. The protection furnished was poor; 
the food, clothing, and shelter were poor; the religion 
was crude and oftentimes immoral; the education of 
the children was neglected, and the pleasures were 
gross and degrading. It could not be any other way 
under those conditions. 

It may seem strange that it is so, but history 
teaches us that there was first a felt-need for the 
organization, the church, after the family. And when 
there is a strong felt-need for anything, the thing is 
thus produced that will satisfy this need. It will 
help the student to think out illustrations of this. So 
after the family came the church as the first institu- 
ti(m differentiated from the family. It states it truly 



16 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

to say the church had its origin in the idea that it as 
an institution could furnish gratification for man's 
religious impulses better than the family could. If 
this had not been true, the church would have had no 
reason for coming into existence. 

The next institution differentiated was doubtless 
the school. It grew out of the idea that it could edu- 
cate the children better than could be done by the 
family or the church, or by both. So the school had 
its origin in the thought that it as an institution could 
do the work of educating the children better than any 
other instituti(m. This was the idea that created it, 
and it is the sole purpose of the school to realize this 
idea. It is the function of everything to realize the 
idea that created it, and the school accords to this law. 

Ilhistration. — It may be truly said that the idea 
which created the cotton-gin was the idea of some 
machine to separate the cotton fiber from the seed. 
And it is the purpose or function of the cotton-gin to 
realize this idea; that is, to do the work of separating 
the cotton fiber from the seed. This we know it does 
weU, and the fact that it does it well is what has kept 
the cotton-gin in existence. 

The origin of the state, ))usiness life, and society 
may be accounted for in the same way; that is, they 
arose in the process of differentiation of the institu- 
tions. It is, however, our purpose here to study the 
origin of the school only. 

Diffcroifidfio)! in the School. — The first scliool was, 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 17 

doubtless, a very simple and primitive affair. It 
probably consisted of a few students congregated 
under the shade of some primitive tree to receive in- 
struction from one who occupied the jDlace of teacher. 
It is within the memory of men living that the school 
was very simple. The house was a log cabin, the 
curriculum was reading, writing, spelling, and arith- 
metic. The country school was Common school. High 
school. Academy, Normal school. Technical school, 
College and University. But from this simple begin- 
ning by differentiation our schools have become quite 
complex and elaborate. There has been differentia- 
tion at any rate along four lines; in the school as a 
whole, in the work of the teacher, in the curriculum, 
and in grading. Once there was nothing but the 
Common schools, but now there are High schools, 
Normal schools. Colleges, Universities, etc., each with 
its own special work to do. Once a teacher taught 
every thing in a school course, but now there is a 
special teacher for each subject. The curriculum 
once consisting of reading, writing, spelling, and 
arithmetic is now changed by differentiation to one 
consisting of the mathematical group, the language 
group, the history group, the science group and the 
art group, a quite complex and extensive affair. And 
lastly differentiation has brought about grading in 
our schools. The teacher in the first schools taught 
aU grades. This is now changed, for the tendency is 
toward but one or two grades for a teacher. 



18 STUDIES JN I'EDACJOGY. 

This differentiation in all lines means progress. 
It means a saving of time and energy. It is just as 
true in the school as in any kind of life that divisicm 
of labor means progress. 

I//Ksfr<(ti<»i. — Suppose the farmer, in addition to 
producing farm products, had to make his own 
machinery, grind his wheat and corn for flour and 
meal, tan the skins and make his boots and shoes, do 
his own carpenter work, saw his lumber, produce 
cotton, wool and flax, weave it into cloth for clothing, 
be his own doctor, dentist, lawyer, teacher, and 
preacher, none of these could be done so well as they 
are now when this labor is divided up among many 
persons. Time and energy would be lacking to do so 
many kinds of work well. Also, there is not only 
more energy to put on any one kind of work when 
labor is differentiated, but any one doing just one or 
two lines of work becomes more skillful than he could 
become when doing many kinds of work, and, accord- 
ingly, will do his work much better. 

The origin of the school thus made pretty clear 
in the study of the differentiation of instituticms, the 
next point that invites our study is the elements of 
the school. 

Tlie EJeinentH of tJie School. — It has been said that 
the school is a complex whole; that is, a whole made 
up of many parts, or elements. These elements may 
be divided into two classes, and these classes may 
consistently be named; 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 19 

1. Necessary elements. 

2. Supplementary elements. 

The necessary elements are those without which 
the school can not exist. The school is for the pupil, 
and without the pupil there can be no school. So the 
pupil is the first and most imi^ortant of the necessary 
elements of the school. The pupil makes necessary 
a teacher. While a school can not exist without the 
pupil, no more can it exist without the teacher. The 
school finds the idea that created it in the process of 
fulfillment in the teaching act. But to have the teach- 
ing act requires the teacher. So the teacher is to be 
named as another one of the necessary elements of 
the school. Wliile the mind of the pupil is the thing 
to be taught always, it can not be taught without 
some subject or subjects for it to exercise upon. So 
a third element, the subjects of the school course, is, 
also, an absolute necessity. The term used to desig- 
nate the school subjects, — reading, writing, spelling, 
geography, history, etc., — taken as a whole, is the 
.schooJ curricuhnii. With these three elements, the 
pupU, the teacher, and the curriculum a school may 
exist. Take away any one or more and the school can 
not exist. 

Almost every school possesses other elements 
that contribute to the efficiency of the work the 
school has to do, but which are not absolutely neces- 
sary to the existence of the school. These are the 
elements that have been called supplementary ele- 



20 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

merits. Tlioy are the school ofticials, the jMrents, 
and the material equipments. The school ofifiicers are 
the directors, trustees, members of the school boards, 
superintendents of county, city, and state, the com- 
missioners of educatitm, and, in a sense, the legisla- 
tors, g-overnors, and president. The material equip- 
ments are school houses, school furniture, labora- 
tories, library, apparatus, and school jDremises. 

Both these classes of elements may exist, how- 
ever, and there still be nt) school. In order that there 
may be a school these elements, whether necessary 
or supplementary, few or many, must be in harmony 
with the law of the organization. This laio is the Imv of 
unity. In order to understand this statement well, 
two words in it need special study. These are the 
words, /(I70 and vnity. 

Law. — A law is a truth that belongs to a large 
number of particular cases. Thus it is a law that 
plants require sunshine, moisture, and air for their 
growth. This is a truth that belongs to a large num- 
ber of individual jilants, and these are the particular 
cases. It will helj^ the student to think out other 
illustrations of law. 

Unity. — This means cmeness in thought and i)ur- 
pose here. It means harmony in work. It is the 
harmonious working relation in the organism. Thus 
thor(> is unity between student and teacher when they 
])()lli wvr worlcing with the sani(> thought in mind to 
accoiiiplisli the sanu> end. There is unity between 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 21 

parent and teacher when they are agreed as to the 
end to be attained in school work, and are also agreed 
as to the means of reaching the desired end. 

This law of unity is the fundamental law of the 
school. With the law of unity intact the school moves 
forward without a jar towards the accomplishment 
of its work — the education of the pupil. With the 
law broken there is discord and friction. The 
teacher, the student, the parent, or the school oflicers 
may break the law of the school — the law of unity. 
When any one does so, he breaks a rule of the school; 
for the rules of the school are but different phases of 
the law of unity. He who breaks the law of unity 
in the school either intentionally or unintentionally is 
a sinner. He has committed an educational sin. 

Further Materkd for Study. — After studying the 
school as an institution, it remains to us to study the 
work the school has to do; and, also, to study carefully 
the necessary elements of the school together with 
the organization. These will be studied in succeed- 
ing chapters. 

The purpose of the school is one with the end or 
object of education; so a study of this leads to a study 
of the nature and purpose of education. The nature 
and purpose of education will constitute the subject- 
matter of study in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WORK THE SCHOOL HAS TO DO. 

Tlic Problem. — The work the school has to do is to 
educate the pupil. But what is it to educate the 
pupil':' What sort of condition is the pupil to be in 
when he is educated? Wliat is the meaning of what 
is called an education? These are some of the ques- 
tions that suggest themselves at the outset of the 
study. The real problem sums itself up in the prob- 
lem of the purpose of the school, and since the pur- 
pose of the school is one with the purpose of educa- 
tion, the problem is, the object to be reached in the 
educating- process. That is to say, the question we 
have to answ^er is. What is the aim of education? 

Tlie Problem Ansivered. — There is scarcely an edu- 
cational writer of note who has not dealt with this 
problem and who has not answered it in a way satis- 
factory to himself, to say the least. It will be help- 
ful to consider some of these answers to this all 
imjjortant question. 

Co)n/)/€te Llvimj. — Mr. Herbert Spencer, doubt- 
less the greatest living thinker, says the aim of edu- 
cation is complete Uv'dkj. This, when analyzed, means 
treating the body right; treating the mind right; 
managing one's affairs right; rearing a family right; 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 23 

behaving right as a citizen; and spending one's leisure 
time right. This seems a broad and comprehensive 
view of the aim of education. There seems to be no 
kind of human activity in hfe that this view of the 
aim of education does not touch. Granting that this 
is the true aim of education, then instruction in our 
schools, if in harmony with this aim, must give the 
pupil knowledge that will guide him in these six 
kinds of activities. There must be knowledge gained 
that will furnish guidance in treating the body right; 
in treating the mind right; in managing one's affairs 
right; in rearing a family right; in behaving right as 
a citizen; in spending one's leisure time right. The 
schools in their present condition fall far short of 
realizing this comprehensive aim. There is scarcely 
anything in many of our school courses that has as 
its specific purpose to furnish knowledge that will 
give guidance in treating the mind right. And again 
the school course is almost entirely devoid of any 
work that will give knowledge to furnish guidance in 
rearing a family. Doubtless much in the school 
courses has such a remote connection with knowledge 
that gives guidance in any of the six lines of human 
activity indicated, that the time spent upon it could 
be spent ten times more profitably some other way. 
That is to say, in the light of the above purpose of 
education we have not a ratio^uil school curriculum 
yet. This point will be treated at length, howev^er, 
in Chapter VI. under the head of the school ctirrlcuUuu. 



24 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY, 

lUiliondl Freedom. — Mr. Arnold Tompkins holds 
that the aim of education is rational freedom. Rational 
freedom means ' ' the power to choose and live in the 
highest good. " This means freedom to choose and 
do that which will in every instance lift one to a 
higher plane of life in contradistinction to doing as 
one pleases regardless of the effect it has upon himself 
and his fellow-men. Some fancy their freedom taken 
away from them when they are prohibited from doing 
those things which by degrees bind veritable shack- 
les of slavery upon them. This in the light of rational 
freedom is not freedom but bondage. 

IlhistraUon. — A man claims his freedom gives 
him the right to partake of intoxicating drink to the 
extent that he becomes drunken. He raises a cry 
and hue, if one says the law against drunkenness 
should be enforced, and says his freedom is re- 
stricted. His freedom is not restricted, but the 
license to make a slave of himself is the thing upon 
which the restriction falls. If he were free, he would 
know the evil effects of intemperance, and would 
choose to be temperate, and would have the force of 
character to realize his choice. 

So it appears that rational freedom really reduces 
itself to a synonym for the ability to live completely. 

ffar)no)iy of l)iferif<e Individual Life loith the Social 
('onsciov.sNe.s.s of the Race. — The view of Mr. Jno. Dewey 
as to the end of educaticm is, the highest development 
of the individual's poM^ors in harmony with the life of 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 25 

the race. That is to say, the individual is to have his 
powers developed to the highest extent in coming to 
share in the intellectual and moral resources which 
the human race has succeeded in collecting. This 
means that the aim of education is individual develop- 
ment to the extent that the power of choosing and 
living the highest good both for the individual and for 
the social life of the race, is attained. And when this 
is attained the condition of life will be the same as 
Herbert Spencer means by complete living. 

Strand Moral Character. — Mr. Charles A. Mc- 
Murry discusses the questicm, the aim of education, in 
his work cm "General Method," and arrives at the 
conclusion that it is to produce -s'^yo/yf/ )noral character. 
This means again power to choose and live the high- 
est good. In order to have strong moral character 
one must possess the ability to think out the right 
and wrong in human activity. One is not likely as a 
rule to do better than he knows. He may do so, how- 
ever, by accident, but to be able to act right, presup- 
poses the development of the thinking powers to the 
extent that correct judgments of right and wrong 
may be formed. So to say that strong moral charac- 
ter is the aim of education does not mean that knowl- 
edge getting together with the ability to think is to 
be slighted at all. On the other hand, one thing that 
it does mean is, that there must be power of thought, 
but it further means that this power must be regu- 
lated and directed to righteous ends. To say that a 



2(5 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

man always has ^ood motives is not efiiiivalent to say- 
ing that a man has strong moral character. The 
Fijian considers murder an action of the highest 
honor, and feels, evidently, that he has not done his 
highest duty till he has killed some one. Although 
some might say the act was a moral act because the 
motive seemed good to the Fijian, none, probably, 
would say the act was the result of strong moral 
character. Similarly, the Turcoman regards theft as 
meritorious, as shown by the fact that he makes 
pilgrimages to the tombs of noted robbers to make 
offerings to their departed spirits. In the same man- 
ner the Egyptian thinks it praiseworthy to lie with- 
out any further object than that he may become skill- 
ful in the art of lying. According to a class (^f moral 
thinkers, called Intuitionists, these acts, murder, 
theft and lying, are moral acts, if the agent performs 
them with what he considers a good motive. How- 
ever, the common sense of any school boy or girl tells 
him or her that these acts do not grow out of strong 
moral character. So a person to have strong moral 
character must be a good fli inker, a lorer of fruth, 
beaut]/, and rightcousne-S'S, witli a ireJl trained ivill 1o the 
end of acting 1 riitlifiillii, heantifKllij, and 7'ighteov.s/i/. 

Lnporlance of Ike rigid vieiv. — Purpose is begin- 
ning and end in every kind of process. Purjjose as 
an idea is the Vx'ginning, and it moves forwai'd guid- 
ing the process to its realization, the end. '^Flius ])ur- 
pose determines the end reached, and, also, the 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 27 

character of the process in reaching the end together 
with the means used in carrying on the process. 

llhiat ration. — A man wishes to beautify his lawn, 
the purpose, which exists only as an idea. But it is 
the beginning in the process. He sets out shrub- 
bery, makes flower beds and plants flowers, orderly 
arranged, places walks, and constructs a fountain in 
some suitable place. All this constitutes the process, 
which the purpose guides. In the light of the pur- 
pose the work must be neatly, orderly and artistically 
done, or the beauty will be marred. So the purpose 
also determines the kind of shrubbery, flowers, walks 
and fountain selected, that is, the means. All this 
work well done, the lawn is beautiful, which is the 
realization of purpose. So the purpose was begin- 
ning as idea, and end as its realization. 

From the foregoing the importance of having the 
right purpose of education before each student and 
teacher begins to appear. It will determine: 

1. The character of the educational process. 

2. The means used in the jDrocess of education. 

3. The thing accomplished by the educational 
process. 

Of all the questions educational that enlist the 
intellect and apjoeal t(^ the interests of the people, no 
other is so important as this: no other is so vital and 
determining in its effects: no other is so far-reaching 
in its influence. Upon the appreciation of its impoi't- 
ance, its correct solution, the faith in it, and the force 



28 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

of it in the form of living principles in the lives of 
students and teachers depend not only the success of 
individuals, but even the perpetuity of national life. 

In general it may be said that man aims at two 
things in life: 

1. " Animal happiness. ' ' 

i\ " Spiritual worthiness. ' ' 

Animal happiness means a condition in life in 
which the individual is freed from physical bondage. 
It means the possession of the material blessings of 
life to the extent that one may have food, clothing, 
and shelter for himself and his family. It is some- 
what relative, meaning different things to different 
persons. But in all cases it refers to the possession 
of money, or property to the end of bodily comfort. 
It is the practical set over against culture; the physi- 
cal set over against the spiritual. 

Spiritual worthiness means all that has been dis- 
cussed under moral character. 

These aims are both worthy ones, but it makes a 
mighty difference in the life of the individual which 
one holds the dominant place in his consciousness and 
affections. It will change the whole current of his 
life and character. 

What the Prhtiary Aim of Eihication Is Not. — The 
predominant aim of education is not animal happi- 
ness. If it were, man would be no better than the 
lower animals in so far as the aim of his life is con- 
cerned. There is, however, a strong and wide-spread 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 29 

belief that the purpose of education is primarily to 
furnish a means for obtaining a livelihood. Evidence 
of this is found in the ideas of students who lirst 
enter the work in the pedagogical department of our 
Normal schools. It is probably not an exaggeration 
to say that nine-tenths of the students entering the 
Normal schools of the country hold in mind as the 
predominant end the money-making purpose. Fur- 
ther evidence of this is found in the ideas that parents 
generally have in sending their children to school. 
It is common for parents to say in reply to the ques- 
tion, "Wliy are you sending your children to school?" 
something in substance like this: "I want my child 
to be educated that he may not have so hard a time in 
life as I have had. " 

What the PritiKinj Aim of Education Is. — The 
primary aim of education is "spiritual worthiness." 
In our civilization there is a felt-need for strong 
moral character above all other things. Can there be 
any doubt of a strong felt-need for manhood and 
womanhood among the masses of our people, when 
ignorance, \ice, and corruption go hand in hand with 
poverty, degredation, and human misery; when there 
is scarcely a court in the land in which one can feel 
perfectly assured of justice; when no attempt is made 
to conceal the fact that to corrupt the right of suf- 
frage is regarded as fair play; when so many men in 
the common affairs of life will not deal honestly with 
each other? Is there any doubt of it, as long as our 



30 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Icii'islatoi's arc suscej:)tible to the inlluoncr of lobyists 
and bribery ; as loiiii; as men liave not the nianbood 
and moral courage to crush out of existence, when 
it hes within their power, a curse that tiUs our jails, 
penitentiaries, and almshouses, and sends eighty 
thousand of citizens in our country yearly to prema- 
ture graves; that causes the loss of fortunes, makes 
homes desolate, and perpetuates its evil? One can 
assert without fear of successful contradiction that 
the most pressing need of the nation, the race and 
humanity is a better moral type of manhood and 
womanhood. Never was J. G. Holland's "Prayer of 
the Nation " more true than now. He says: 
"■ (k)d give us men I A time like this demands 
Strong minds, great liearts, true faith and ready liands, 
Men whom the lust of office does not kill; 
Men whom the spoils of office can not buy. 
Men who possess opinions and a will: 
Men who have honor and will not lie; 
Men who can stand before a demagogau^ 
And scorn his treacherous tiattery without winking, 
Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog 
In ])ublic duty and i)rivate thinking."' 

Education is living rather than mere i)reparati()i] 
t'oi' living, and human life will of necessity in the pro- 
cess of developing ccmform M'ith the unfolding of life 
wherever found. Then when we have found out the 
universal law of the unfolding life process, we have 
found the real purpose of the educational jirocess. 
This is always an upward striving to accomplish the 
end i)rompted by inherent self-urgency. Thus the 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 31 

acorn develops into the typical oak tree, true to the 
best implanted in it. The grain of corn grows to the 
mature stalk and ear, also true to its best nature. 

The poet idealizes it thus, 

"Every clod feels a stir of might, 
An instinct within it that reaches and towers, 
And g-roping blindly above it for light, 
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers.'' 
The animal world feels the same self-urgency, 
content in the 'faith of accomplishing the whereunto 
it was sent. ' The larva develops into the beautiful 
butterfly true to this principle. Within the egg is, 
in potentia, the songster of woodland and fields, and 
its life consists in making the potential that to which 
its self-urgency points. The poet understands this 
when he says, 

''To-day I saw a dragon-fly 
Come from the wells where he did lie. 
An inner impulse rent the vail 
Of his old husk: from head to tail 
Came out clear i)lates of sapphire mail." 
The human being comes into this world the most 
in bondage of aU animals. His unpreparedness for 
living is the greatest. He is least capable of taking 
care of himself. But who can tell what he is capable 
of becoming? It is confidently believed that, while 
he is actually in bondage in every way, he is poten- 
tially absolutely free. Educati(m is the growth from 
what the individual is to what freedom is in him 
potentially, and to which his self-urgency impels him. 
Then the purpose of education is strong thinking 



32 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

powers, well developed emotional faculties, and a well 
trained and stron<>' will, to the end of sc'riii)ul()us 
honesty and integrity, of strong moral character, and 
of whatever else makes the even current of life run 
full and strong. 

The i>()et Holmes voices the idealized purpose in 
education in, 

"Build thee more stately mansions, () my soul, 

As the swift seasons roll! 

Leave thy low-vaulted past I 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last. 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome m6re vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving- thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea." 

By way of emphasis it may be said that education 
comprehends intellectual shrewdness, but not with- 
out the power of right direction. The educated man 
is scrupulously honest and upright in every way. 
He is the one who sees the Universal Spirit back of 
all things, of which nature, life and thought are the 
manifestations. He knows his highest destiny is 
reached by putting himself in harmony with the laws 
of life, and living the universal life of the spirit. He 
sees his life as a complexity of physical, intellectual, 
ccsthetic, social, moral and religious aspects, and 
knows the purpose of education is the harmonious 
development of these capacities. 

It was noticed in Chapter I. that the necessary 
elements of the school are the pupil, the teacher, and 
the curriculum. Havinc: studied the nature of the 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 33 

school and the Avork it has to do, it remains for us to 
study the necessary elements of the school, and the 
school organization. The first and most imj^ortant 
of the necessary elements is the child. And the 
child iDresents himself to us as both a physical being 
and a spiritual being. It is with the physical nature 
of the child that the next chapter will deal. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE PHYSICAL NATURE OF THE CHILD. 

liiij>fni(iiii-c ()/ /f.s Slndij. — When one looks around 
him and sih's how few men and women he can find in 
middle or later life who are thoroughly well, he begins 
to appreciate the need of a better understanding of 
the laws of life by teachers, parents, and all other 
persons. This knowdedge of the laws of life is needed 
by every teacher that he may do something toward 
the })hysical educati(m of the children under his con- 
trol. The time has come when most teachers recog- 
nize the fact that physical education is a need in the 
school. If any one doubts the need of physical edu- 
cation, 'let him consider the natural pain, the weari- 
ness, the gloom, the waste of time and mcmey entailed 
loy bad health. Let him also consider how greatly 
ill-health hinders the discharge of all duties, makes 
business often impossible, and always more difficult; 
produces an irritability fatal to the right manage- 
ment of children; puts the functicm of citizenshi]i out 
of the questi(m, and makes amusement a bor(\ It 
seems pretty clear that physical sins, ])artly our fore- 
fathers' and partly our owm, which pi-oduce this ill- 
health, deduct more from complete living than any- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 35 

thing else, and to a great extent make life a failure 
and a burden instead of a benefaction and a pleasure. ' 

"To all of which add the fact, that life, besides 
thus being immensely deteriorated, is also cut short. 
It is not true, as we commonly suppose, that a dis- 
order or a disease from which we have recovered 
leaves us as before. No disturbance of the normal 
course of the functions can pass away and leave 
things exactly as they were. In all cases a perma- 
nent damage is done, not immediately appreciable, it 
may be, but still there; and along with other such 
items which Nature in her strict account-keeping 
never drops; will tell against us to the inevitable 
shortening of our days. Through the accumulation 
of small injuries it is that constitutions are commonly 
undermined, and break down long before their time. 
And if we call to mind how far the average duration 
of life falls below the possible duration, we see how 
immense is the loss. Wlien to the numerous partial 
deductions which bad health entails, we add this 
great final deduction, it results that ordinarily more 
than one-half of life is thrown away. ' ' 

The above taken largely from Herbert Spencer 
places weU before us the need of better physical edu- 
cation. But an exhaustive discussion of the physical 
nature of the pupil is out of the question here how- 
ever valuable the knowledge may be. But some 
points helpful to the student and teacher in school 
work may be discussed. 



36 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Food. — It is well known that there is a ])revailinjj^ 
idea current that children should not be allowed to 
eat much animal food. It is thought by many per- 
sons that a vegetable diet is the one most suitable for 
children, and many good people join in with this 
belief without thinking very much whether it is true 
or not, or if true, why it is true. The thing for the 
parent and teacher to lind out is what the truths of 
modern science show" when applied to this question. 
Since we must make the discussion short here, we 
may say that the truths of modern science do not 
show that a vegetable diet is the best for children. 
On the other hand, it can be plainly shown by apply- 
ing the light of scientilic truth to this question that 
an exclusive vegetable diet is not the best for children 
or any other normal human being. This belief that a 
vegetable dietary is best for children "is a dogma re- 
peated and received without proof." The verdict of 
science is exactly opposite to the popular opinion on 
this question. 

These tw^o reasons are given in support of the 
vegetable dietary theory: 1. The health of the child 
is better promoted by a vegetable dietary. 2. The 
child whose dietary is vegetable has a better disposi- 
tion than the one whose food is largely animal. 

Let us notice each of these briefly. The main- 
tenance of the health of the child demands food for 
three things: 1. To make up for the waste of the 
body. 2. To supply fuel to keej) uj) tlie temperature 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 37 

of the body. 3. To furnish material for building up 
new tissue — for growth. Now, since sufficient nutri- 
ment must be furnished to meet these three de- 
mands, if health be subserved, the question is, shall 
they be met by furnishing a large quantity of weak 
food, or by furnishing a moderate quantity of rich 
food? The health demands further an economy of 
digestion, and science again helps us by showing 
that health is not j^reserved by imposing upon diges- 
tion large quantities of dilute food. Again it is well 
known that those persons or animals that live on 
vegetable diet have large abdomens, flabby muscles, 
and too little energy. 

With respect to the second reason urged, it may 
be said that it has never been scientifically proved 
that an animal diet gives children bad dispositions. 
The verdict of science is again against this. The 
Esquimau and the Laplander are both easy-going sort 
of fellows that can scarcely be provoked into a fight, 
yet they and their ancestors for ages have lived 
almost wholly on meat. It is well known that good 
feeding gives animals good dispositions. The opinion 
that animal food makes children irritable, and hard 
to get along with, lacks convincing proof. "That 
nation proverbially known as 'beef -eaters' has pro- 
duced the greatest literature of all time. " 

It can not be too strongly impressed upon 
parents and teachers that children's education de- 
mands from all points of view plenty of wholesome, 



38 STUDI1':S IN PEDAGOGY. 

nutritious food. Children have often been ]mnished 
for restlessness caused by a hunger that would not 
let them be still, and for which the only remedy was 
a good, wholesome meal. 

Clofhin//. — There are some ideas in regard to 
clothing more or less generally held that are equally 
untrue with those held concerning food, and which 
are the source of much evil, and human misery. The 
child needs clothing to protect him from cold, heat, 
and contact with substances that might injure him. 
This is the primary purpose of clothing, and to this 
end all consideraticms should look. "The common 
noti(m about 'hardening' children is a grievous de- 
lusion. Children are not unfrequently 'hardened' 
out of the world; and those who survive, permanently 
suffer either in growth or constitution. " This is true 
because a permanent quantity of heat is necessary to 
the health and growth of the body. Now if this 
quantity of heat is lessened for any considerable 
time because of a lack of clothing or because of ex- 
posure, the health will be impaired, and retarded or 
stunted grow^th wiU result. If the constitution is 
not strong enough to bear the loss of heat, the result 
will V>e disease, sickness, and premature death. 
However, if the c(mstitution be strong enough to bear 
the loss of heat due to scanty clothing, no further in- 
jury many result than stunted growth. 

"This truth is dis])]ayed alike in animals and 
man. The Sh(>tland ])ony bears greater inclemencies 



STUDIES IN PEDAC40CY. 39 

than the horses of the soutli, but is dwarfed. High- 
land sheep and cattle, living in a colder climate, are 
stunted in comparison with English breeds. In both 
the arctic and antarctic regions the human race falls 
much below its ordinary height: the Laplander and 
Esquimau are very short: and the Terra del Puegians, 
who go naked in a cold latitude, are described by 
Darwin as so stunted and hideous, that cme can 
hardly make one's self believe they are fellow- 
creatures." 

Leibeg says: "Our clothing is, in reference to 
the temperature of the body, merely an equivalent 
for a certain amcmnt of food." The only safe rule is 
as follows: children must wear clothes sufficient in 
quantity and quality to protect the body from an 
abiding sensation of cold, however slight. 

Again, children are compelled to wear clothing 
which makes them uncomfortable in the extreme in 
order to conform to fashion. "Discomfort more or 
less great, is inflicted; frequent disorders are en- 
tailed; growth is checked or stamina undermined; 
premature death not uncommonly caused; and all 
because it is thought needful to make frocks " which 
are fashionable. It can not be too strongly empha- 
sized that while clothing should not be in excess, it 
should always be sufficient in quantity and quality to 
prevent any abiding feeling of cold. It should be 
made of some good non-C(mductive material, and 
strons: enough to stand the wear and tear of childish 



40 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

sports with little damage, and its color should be well 
adapted to use and exposure. 

But wiiat is the pedagogical bearing of food and 
clothing. Two thoughts here suggest themselves. 
1. Excellent opportunities often present themselves 
to the teacher of bringing this fact, that the child's 
education demands plenty of wholesome, nutritious 
food, and plenty of clothing of the right quality, be- 
fore parents and jjeople at large. There is oppor- 
tunity here for a great improvement in conditions 
which affect the education of the children, and it is 
the duty of each teacher to do all he can to improve 
these conditions. The teacher must understand and 
be impressed with the importance of these questions 
to do effectively his part toward bringing about better 
conditions. 2. The teacher who understands the re- 
lation of food and clothing to education will not expect 
the same quality or quantity of work from the poorly 
fed and poorly clothed child that he will expect from 
his more fortunate companions. Not all children can 
be treated alike in teaching. The teaching must C(m- 
form to the needs of the child. The needs for no two 
children are the same. The knowledge of the rela- 
tion of the food and clothing question to education 
wiU give the teacher more charity, and a more sympa- 
thetic insight in teaching those children who are 
poorly fed and clothed. And this question of charity 
and sympathetic insight is of tremendous importance 
t<^ the cliildi'en. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 41 

School-roo)ti Ckynditions. — There are several points 
concerning the condition of the school-room that are 
properly to be discussed in pedagogy work; and be- 
cause of their relation to the child's physical being, 
it, from one view-point, is proper to discuss them 
here. These points are: 1. Ventilation. 2. Temper- 
ature. 3. Lighting. 4. Seating. 5. Cleanliness. 

]^e}ifi/ation. — The general well-being of the physi- 
cal nature depends upcm the quantity and quality of 
the blood. If the blood be not properly aerated, the 
whole organism suffers at once from the effect of the 
blood upon it. There is fatigue, drowsiness, stupor, 
headache, and a general lack of interest and vivacity. 
These conditions continued will lead to bad colds, 
catarrh, pneumonia, tuberculosis and death. From 
the point of the physical welfare of the child, the 
question of ventilation is of the highest importance. 
It is not an uncommon thing to find seventy-five per 
cent, of the students of a school room suffering with 
colds at the same time, the teacher often-times at- 
tributing this ccmdition of things to circumstances 
over which he has no control, when probably he is to 
blame for it largely in neglecting proper ventilation. 
The child's success in life will depend to such a large 
extent upon his physical excellence that it becomes of 
tremendous importance to the teacher to do his part 
in giving him a sound body. 

It is not the purpose to discuss the technique of 
ventilation in this place. There are two things which 



42 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

must be efficiently provided for, however. First, 
plenty of pure, fresh air must be admitted to the 
school-room at all times. Secondly, it must be ad- 
mitted to the school-room in such a way that the 
children and teacher may not at any time be exposed 
to currents and draughts. Currents and draughts 
are the source of colds, sore throat, earache, neuralgia 
and catarrh. The two following points should be 
emphasized, too: 1. Air may be cold and at the same 
time be impure and unfit to breathe. This is a truth 
that janitors in a great many instances seem entirely 
incapable of getting into their heads. Who has not 
had the exasperating experience of sitting at church 
or at some other public gathering suffering intensely 
from cold and bad air at the same time. "2. It is 
every teacher's highest duty to acquaint himself with 
the technique of ventilation to the end that he may 
ventilate properly both his school-room and his living 
rooms. 

Teni/ierafi/ir. — No school-room is conducive to 
health, which is either too warm or too cold. If too 
cold it will bring on a sensation of chilliness that is 
not only extremely uncomfortable but dangerous to 
the health. All the evils that result from clothing 
deficient in quantity and quality may likewise be 
brought on by sitting, working and living in an 
atmosphere of too low temperature. Colds, sore 
throat, neuralgia, earache, catarrh, pneumonia, tuber- 
culosis, stunted c<mstituti(m and arrested ])hysical 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 43 

growth and even death may easily be traced to this 
source in many cases. It is almost as bad if the 
school-room is constantly kept too warm. To say 
nothing of diseases brought on by leaving a room too 
warm and going out into the open air, the question 
ought to be of interest to the teacher because of the 
enervating eifect a too high temperature has upon 
one's life. There is nothing that more quickly takes 
the energy, \avacity, and vitality out of students than 
habitually keeping a school-room too warm. 

A temperature of 70° Fahrenheit is, all things 
considered, the temperature that should as nearly as 
possible be maintained in the school-room. Any 
variation from this of more than two degrees is to 
be avoided as detrimental. Every school-room should 
be provided with a thermometer, if not by the school 
board, by the teacher, to the end that apj^roximately 
the proper temperature may be maintained. 

It is worthy of note in this connection that tem- 
perament, clothing, and food of children have a direct 
bearing upon the question of temperature that no 
really earnest, sympathetic teacher will ignore. 
Some children are comfortable in an atmosphere at 
68°, some at 70°, and others at 72°. Some are clothed 
too warmly, some about right, and some too scantily 
clothed. Again some have an abundance of food of 
good quality, while others have food deficient both in 
quantity and quality. No teacher can afford to ignore 
these various conditions, and no sympathetic, loving 
teacher will want to do so. 



44 STUDIES IN PEDAGO(4Y. 

Lighting. — The facilities for lighting school 
houses are of such a character often-times that the 
eyes of the students are permanently injured. Light 
insufticient in quantity is often-times admitted to the 
room; and again when the quantity admitted is suffi- 
cient, it comes into the room in such a way that it 
hurts the eyes. In fact very few school houses con- 
form in their facilities for lighting, to what truths 
modern science teaches on this subject. These de- 
fects in facilities for lighting are so universal that 
some diseases of the eye caused thereby, have come 
to be known as school diseases. Myopia (short- 
sightedness) and Asthenopia {weakness of the eyes) 
are the most common of these. It is true that our 
school houses and schools have been and are now 
veritable establishments for producing myopia. 
Large numbers of school children have been ex- 
amined in Germany, France, Sweeden, Russia and 
America for the purpose of getting helpful informa- 
tion on the subject of myopia. Dr. Hermann Cohn 
examined the eyes of 10,060 school children and found 
myopia gradually increasing from 1.4 per cent, in the 
village schools to 26.2 in the gymnasia. Those chil- 
dren who had been in the village schools six months 
or less showed no myopia. Dr. Motais examined in 
France the eyes of (),m() students witli similar re- 
sults; he found in some of the coll(\ges that the per- 
centage of myojnc students was as high as SO. Dr. 
Dowling examined the eyes of 1,000 school children 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 45 

in Cincinnati and found that a little more than 30 per 
cent, of them were near-sighted. All the cases ex- 
amined showed a gradual increase of myopia from 
the first grade. 

Myopia is to be avoided because it is disagree- 
able, painful and inconvenient; because it is unnatural 
and places the one afflicted at a disadvantage in life in 
the struggle for success and happiness. 

School-rooms should never be more than 33 ft. in 
length and 24 ft. in mdth. There should be an 
abundance of windows so arranged as to admit the 
light from the left and rear of the student. Black- 
boards should be at the front and at the right. 

Dr. A. G. Young, secretary of the State Board of 
Health in Maine, gives the following rules for the 
prevention of myopia in school: 

1. The school-room should have an abundance of 
light in every part. The principal source of light 
should be at the pupil's left. 

2. The periods of eye work should not be too Icmg. 

;!. A large part of the instruction should be com- 
municated orally during school hours, and the eye- 
straining and time-robbing preparation of written 
lessons sliould be reduced to the lowest possible point. 

4. The school work to be done at home should be 
limited to a very small amount, and in the younger 
classes to none. 

5. The desks and seats should be of the proper 
pattern and size, otherwise stooping or other postures 



46 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

favoriiii; (•()nij:esti()n of the eye and ])i'()(lucti()ii of 
myopia will be assumed by the pupil. 

6. The demand for written work should be 
moderate. 

7. The type of all school and other books for chil- 
dren should be lari^^e and distinct. 

8. Black-boards should be of a dead black, not 
gk)ssy. They should be placed where they will be 
well lighted. 

If these reo:ulations be well observed, other 
school diseases of the eye, as well as myopia, will be, 
in all probability, reduced tt) the minimum. 

Seating. — Since this subject will be touched upon 
in the chapter on " Oro^anization, " the treatment here 
will be brief. Suftice it to say that it is of the 
highest imj^ortance that seats and desks should be of 
proper size and pattern to the end that all ccmditions 
conducive to spinal curvatures, round shoulders, and 
lateral curvatures, strained eyes, and other physical 
deformities may be remcwed; also, to the end that all 
conditions tending to make the child physically un- 
comfortable may be removed. 

('/e(i)i/i)iess. — It is certainly as true as it is old 
that "cleanliness is next to godliness. " Every school 
house should be kept scrupulously neat and clean. 
No paper, bread crumbs, chalk, nut-shells, etc., 
should be allowed upon lh(> lloor. The abominable 
habit that students and even teachers have of expecto- 
rating upon the school house floor is not under any 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 47 

circumstances to be tolerated. It should be held as a 
criminal offense. "The reason for this care is that 
dust and dirt in a school-room is a serious sanitary 
evil. Dust of itself is an irritant to the eyes and the 
air passages. Dust is known to be a bearer of disease 
germs. Tuberculosis is certainly transmitted thus, 
and it is very probable that many other infectious 
diseases are spread in the same way. An infectious 
inflamation t)f the eyes is sometimes very prevalent in 
schools, and it is believed that the germs of this dis- 
ease are spread by means of the dust in school-rooms 
as well as in other ways. " This dust evil could be re- 
duced if all school houses had hard wood floors and 
were kept well oiled; if they were well swept daily at 
the close of the afternocm session after all the students 
had left them. The windows should be thrown wide 
open, and the floor sprinkled with damp saM'dust be- 
fore sweeping. The teacher who is thoroughly in 
earnest with respect to the question of cleanliness 
will not be afraid to take the broom and duster and 
set things to rights even though the janitor does 
slight his work somewhat. As a rule one can tell a 
great deal about the quality of a teacher by the clean- 
liness of his school- room. 

The Sense Organs. — The senses are those func- 
tions of the soul which are concerned in giving us the 
most elementary knowledge and feeling appropriate 
to objects in the external world. The sense organs 
are those organs whose function is to bring stimulus 



48 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

in such a relation to our nervous systems that the 
mind will respond with a corresponding activity. 
The senses are divided into: 1. General, or organic. 
2. Special. Of the special senses the best authorities 
now recognize seven, as follows : 1. Taste. 2. Smell. 
8. Touch. 4. Temperature sense. 5. Muscular 
sense. 6. Hearing. 7. Sight. The general, or 
organic sense, is the sense that gives us a knowledge 
of the general well-being or ill-being of the body and 
has no particular sense organ. Hunger, thirst and 
fatigue are sensations obtained through the general 
sense. The special senses are those senses that give 
us a knowledge mainly of objects around us and have 
special sense organs. 

The sense organs are of the highest imi^ortance 
in that through them the child first awakens to con- 
scious life. Without the sense organs the mind wT)uld 
never grow. It could remain nothing more than a 
bundle of capacities. Without the sense organs all 
intellectual growth as well as all pleasure of living 
would be denied one. 

Since the sense organs are of the highest import- 
ance in education, their health and growth become 
from a pedagogical view-point (me of the most prac- 
tical questions with which the teacher has to deal. 
All the special sense organs as well as the general 
sense organs are subject to pathologic conditions that 
may demand constant attention, but in this short 
chapter cm the "Physical Being " (mly two can be 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 49 

dealt with to any extent. These are: 1. The sense 
organ of hearmg. 2. The sense organ of sight. 

Heariiuj. — Diseases of the ear are always hable to 
produce partial or entire deafness. Too few people 
realize what a sad misfortune partial or entire deaf- 
ness is, and how many people are more or less deaf. 
"Authorities estimate that from fifty to sixty per 
cent, of the children are more or less defective in 
hearing. It is also claimed that by judicious treat- 
ment the percentage can be reduced to fifteen or 
twenty. " " There are too many partially deaf people 
in every community. Every such one is badly handi- 
capped in his business and social relations. How 
many men lose good positions because of defective 
hearing I How many sad and fatal accidents are due 
to the same cause! The new education can do no 
better service to the oncoming generations than to 
preserve and perfect this sense in the children. 

The clear understanding of language is depend- 
ent upon the ability to hear well. Often the deepest 
meaning and the finest shades of thought are lost 
because an accent, a subvocal, or a little slur of the 
voice escapes notice. A child is thought dull or 
stupid who could not be otherwise, for he seldom 
hears anything that is said at home or in the school- 
room. I visited a class room not long since, and 
found that pupils in the rear were craning their necks 
to see the diagrams on the board and hear the ex- 
planations given. Some soon gave up in despair and 



50 STUDIES IN PEDAGO(iY. 

settled down in a listless way to await the end of the 
recitation. Inquiry developed the fact that nearly 
one-third of them heard little of any recitation. 
Under such circumstances what could be expected of 
them?" 

Every teacher should test the hearing of his 
students and seat them accordingly. The following 
is an easy method of testing: "The pupil is placed 
at one end of the school-room with his back turned 
toward the teacher, w^ho dictates in a clear, but not 
loud voice, while the scholar writes. The teacher 
should begin by standing at the farther end of the 
room. If, at that distance, the pupil has any diffi- 
culty in hearing, the teacher gradually approaches 
until the pupil understands perfectly, which will be 
shown by his writing the dictated matter correctly 
and without hesitation. According to the distance at 
which the scholar hears readily, he is ranked and 
placed in the school-room. If, for instance, he hears 
at a distance of fifteen feet only, he is placed within 
that distance from the teacher's desk." 

See lit (I . — Myopia has already been discussed as a 
school disease. Pew persons, teachers included, are 
aware of the number of cases of headache, and 
nervousness caused by myopic eyes. "There seems 
to be no remedy for these defects save in glasses 
properly fitted. It is quite comm<m and is a jirolific 
source of headache. Thousands of cases of chronic 
headache have been promptly cured by the use of 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 51 

glasses." "A ministerial friend tells me that a 
teacher forced his son, who was af&icted with myopia, 
to hold his book at the regulation distance, and in the 
regulation position as he read or studied, and that the 
headache resulting threw him into such nervous dis- 
orders that at least once a fortnight he was obliged to 
keep him out of school for three or four days. A lady 
friend tells me that her little daughter had been 
coming home every day for months with a bad head- 
ache, and that she was losing all interest in school, 
when the writer visited the city and urged the 
teachers to test the sight and hearing of their pupils. 
This girl was found defective in eyesight and given a 
front seat. In two weeks her headache was all gone, 
and her interest in school had returned. " A multi- 
tude of similar cases might be given but these must 
suffice. 

It is the duty of every teacher to test the eye- 
sight of his children. Every teacher can procure a 
set of Snellin's cards of almost any jeweler or optician 
for ten cents, and can learn to use them correctly in 
tests in five minutes. They are among the best 
means for definite tests. Having found the defectives, 
the teacher's duty is to inform the parents or guard- 
ians and do what may be done by seating the students 
so far as possible so as to favor the defective ones. 
Any one who is not willing to take this much trouble 
for his students is not fit to be in the school-room and 
is not worthy the name of teacher. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SPIRITUAL NATURE OF THE CHILD. 

An Attribute. — Wlien we attempt to study any 
thing that we may know it, our study always consists 
in seeking out the attributes of that thing, and when 
we know any object well, we see its attributes. All 
learning consists in grasping with the mind the attri- 
butes of things. If one sees all the attributes of any 
object, he knows all there is to know about that 
object. So to know all the attributes there are in the 
universe to know means absolute freedom of one's 
knowing power, his intellect. But this discussion on 
attributes does not mean as much as it should, unless 
we have a definite idea of an attribute. A very good 
statement for an attribute is as follows: An (ittribiite 
is (( clid rocteristir of (Oii/ object hi/ irhicJi ire h'lioir it. 

1 1 In titration. — If one knows a table well, he knows 
its use, form, color, material, length, height, width, 
weight and decorations; also, the form, length, width, 
lieiglit, use, color, material, make, condition, and 
decoraticm of the parts; also, how the parts are con- 
nected with the table as a whole and with one another. 
But all these are attributes of the table. So to knoAV 
the table is to know its attributes. The table pos- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. oH 

sesses other attributes than those mentioned, but 
these are sufficient for illustration. 

The first step in studying the spiritual nature of 
the child is a study of the attributes of the mind. 
Some might think we would study the substance the 
mind is made of, but this we can not do. There is 
absolutely no way to study what the mind is made of, 
but we can study its attributes. We will study the 
following imi^ortant mental attributes: 

1. Consciousness. 

2. Attention. 

3. Apperception. 

4. Self-activity. 

5. Iterativeness. 

6. Rhythm. 

Consciousness. — If you are asked a question, you 
either know the answer to it or you do not, and you, 
further, know that you know the answer or do not 
know it. That is to say, you know the condition of 
your own mind. It is because of the attribute of con- 
sciousness that the mind is able to do this. Thus 
through consciousness the mind is both the knower 
and the thing known. If without provocation one 
should strike you in the face, you know, without any 
difficulty, your state of mind toward that person. If 
the question, "How do you know your own mental 
states':"' were asked you, you could only answer by 
saying, "I know them through consciousness." One 
can get some idea of consciousness, if he will compare 



54 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

his state of mind when he is asleep with his state of 
mind when he is wide awake. In the one he is more 
or less unconscious, in the other consciousness is in 
charge of the mind. Consciousness is usually con- 
sidered indefinable. The following, though, ap- 
liroaches a definition: Co}t.sciouii)ies.s is that attribute of 
hiiiid by which it knows its oivri states and activities. 
Consciousness is the most important and most funda- 
mental attribute of mind. Without it, mind, as we 
know it, could not exist. 

Attention. — The mind is constantly having ex- 
periences. Mental life, as well as physical, is a suc- 
cession of experiences. The term mental experience 
simply means (/ iiteiital c/Knif/e of (unj h-iiid. So mental 
life is a series of mental changes. Most of our 
mental experiences are carried on without our being 
fully C(mscious of them, but the mind has the power 
of bringing any experience into consciousness fully 
and focusing its energy upon it. It is able to do this 
through the attribute of attention. It appears from 
the above that attending can be analyzed into two 
activities, as follows: 

1. The activity of bringing an experience fully 
into consciousness. 

2. The focusing of the mind's energy upon it. 
Sometimes we think that the mind's energy is 
focused upon some object outside of the mind, but a 
careful study will show us that the energy of the 
mind is focused upon a uiental experience. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 55 

The following is a good definition for attention: 
Attention is that attribute of niind by ivhich it brings 
fullii i)ito consciousjiess some experience and focuses its 
energi/ upon it. 

lllnstration. — One is sitting in his room studying 
his lesson in arithmetic. The clock is sitting on the 
mantel shelf ticking away as loudly as usual, but he 
does not hear it clearly, though he has a sort of dif- 
fused consciousness of its ticking. Suppose some 
(me says "How loudly the clock ticks I" Immediately 
he hears it plainly. That is to say, the mind brings 
fully into consciousness the experience appropriate 
to the ticking of the clock and focuses its energy 
upon it. The focusing element in attention is anal- 
agous to the action of a lens in focusing the rays of 
the sun. 

Api)erception. — All knowing is the mind's process 
in getting meaning. But this statement does not 
mean much unless we see what meaning is, and wiiat 
has the meaning. It seems at first thought that 
objects in the outside world possess the meaning, but 
a careful analysis shows that meaning is in the mind, 
and is the relation between modal experiences. The 
mind in all knowing gets meaning from the experi- 
ence appropriate to the thing known just to the de- 
gree in which it can connect its past experiences with 
its jDresent experience and grasp the relation be- 
tween them. Appercepti(m is this process of con- 
necting the past experiences with the present ex- 



50 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

perience in knowing, feeling, and willing. But this 
is not all of apperception. Every experience the 
mind has leaves its effect upon the mind. The mind 
never is again after an experience what it was before. 
Psychologists say .experiences are organized into the 
mind. It is clearer to say experiences leave their 
effects up(m the mind. Now we are in a position to 
understand the following definition for apperception: 
Apperception is an attr Unite of v mid by whlcli it brings 
its past exj)erlences to bear upon the 'present experience 
in inter pretinri it, and organizes the present experience 
into itself. 

IJlnstration. — If (me who knows nothing of geol- 
ogy were walking down a valley and should tind a 
rock almost round, but having a plane surface as if it 
were worn off by holding it on a grindstone, he would 
probably get just the same meaning from it as he 
would by looking at any other rock. But if a geolo- 
gist should find it, he would ccmnect his past experi- 
ences with it and say it called to his mind an ice age 
when tremendous ice fields covered all this country. 
The difference between the two men was in the ex- 
periences they brought to bear upon the present ex- 
perience. 

Se/f-actirity. — This is cme of the very hardest at- 
tributes of mind to undei'stand, but we can get some 
idea of self-activity by ccmtrasting objects that pos- 
sess it with those that do not. A sewing machine 
nets in s(>wing, but always from a cause without 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 57 

itself. In a similar manner any sort of machine 
acts. A plant acts in growing by taking its food from 
the soil and air and making it into itself; and a horse 
acts by taking food and changing it into horse flesh; 
and, also, by moving from place to place, he acts. 
The action of the plant and the horse originate from 
within while the action of the machine is caused from 
without. The horse and the plant possess self- 
activity and the machine does not. The mind pos- 
sesses this ability to originate its own activities, and 
is thus said to be self -active. The following is prob- 
ably as good definition as can be given for self -activity : 
Self-activiiy is that attribute of mind by lohich tlie mind 
causes itself to act. 

It is helpful to know that the mind possesses the 
ability to cause its own activities; but it is more help- 
ful to the teacher to know that the mind grows by its 
own activity, and groios most ivhen exercised to the 
maocimum healthful activity. This attribute of self- 
activity is perhaps more frequently violated in teach- 
ing than any other law of the mind. 

Iterativeness. — When the muscles of the arm and 
fingers perform the movements in making any 
character in writing for the first time, the activity is 
done with difliculty and very unskilfully, but the next 
attempt is made with more ease and success. Each 
repeated act makes the performance more easily and 
skilfully accomplished. Now what was it that re- 
mained with the muscles after each activity that 



58 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Cciiised tlieiii to perform the acta£j:aiii with more case? 
This we can only answer by saying it is a tendency 
left in the muscles. By tendency is meant a disposi- 
tion to perform some activity. Thus we say the 
plumule of a plant has a tendency to grow upward, 
and the radix has a tendency to grow downward. 
We fold a piece of paper, and then say it has a tend- 
ency to fold in the same place again, and this is what 
is meant by the attribute of iterativeness. The fol- 
lowing is the formal definition for it: Iterafiveitess is 
that attribute of iiii)al Iji/ irhicJi it tends to <(ct a(/ai)i. as it 
has acted. 

Bhyt/iiii. — When the word, rhythm, is spoken, the 
average person probably thinks of poetry and music. 
But rhythm is an attribute that belongs to almost 
everything in the world. Every leaf, flower, and 
blade of grass possesses rhythm. Rhythm in its 
broadest sense is a tliin.g, the de pet rti ire from that thi)if/, 
and a return to it. The following is rhythmical: 

"The day is cold and dark and dreary: 
It rains and the wind is never weary." 

In this there is the sound symbolized by eari/ in 
the word, dreary. This is the thing, and "It rains, 
and the wind is never w" is the departure from it. 
The return to the thing is eanj in the word, weary. 
In tlie ma})le leaf rhythm is manifested by a- porticm 
<m the riglit half always having a corresponding like 
porticm on the left half, the parts between the like 
parts being different. One of the like ])arts is the 



S1:UDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 59 

thing, that between them is the departure from it, 
and the other hke part is the return to it. The world 
is full of rhythm and the human mind longs for it. 
Rhythm as an attribute of the mind may be defined 
as follows: Bhi/thin is that attribute of iiuiuJ Oi/ which 
the mind acts an activity, departs froin it, and tends to 
return to it at regular recurring jjeriods. 

Activities of the mind. — If w^e will examine our 
mental activities by looking within our minds, we will 
see that we are sometimes almost wholly occupied in 
thinking, again we are quivering with anger, and 
other times we are almost wholly occupied in direct- 
ing our muscular or mental activites in doing some 
work. These distinctions among the three kinds of 
activities give basis for the classification of mental 
activities into: 

1. Knowing. 

2. Feeling. 

3. Willing. 

Thus knowing, feeling and willing are the three 
large classes into which all mental activities are 
divided. And now we are ready to study them. 

Knowing. — In general aU knowing is the mind's 
process in getting meaning. But this statement does 
not give much help unless the term, meaning, is well 
understood. Most persons, at first thought, would 
probably say that meaning is something that belongs 
to objects in the external wcn'ld. But a little careful 
thinking reveals the fact that things very unlike wiiat 



60 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

the mind has ever known have very httle meaning for 
the mind. And this thought carried out shows us 
that, if it were possible to find anything entirely dif- 
ferent from anything the mind has ever known, it 
would have absolutely no meaning for the mind. 
Again, two persons look at the word, oblivm-or, and 
while one gets no meaning from it, to the other it 
means I forget. So scarcely any two persons get the 
same meaning from an object or event they see. 
An object or event stimulates to a mental activity 
and, if the mind has past mental activities of a similar 
character to connect the present activity with, it is 
said the mind gets meaning. From this it may, in 
truth, be seen that the meaning is a thing which is in 
the mind. That is to say, meaning is relation, and 
further, it is the relation between the present mental 
experiences and past mental experiences. But even 
here we find two terms whose meaning must be 
understood. The first, experience, explained in a 
former chapter, is any mental change or any mental 
activity. The second, relation, is the likeness be- 
tween mental experiences. The term, reJatioii, means 
here what it means wherever used; namely, the con- 
nection the mind makes between things because of 
their likeness. 

We are now in a positicm to give the following 
definition for knowing: Knoirnif/ is ilie ii/iii<l's jirocess 
in grasping the reJation between its present and its jxiat 
experiences. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY, 61 

Knoioing Discriminating and Unifying. — Every 
act of knowing is an act of both discriminating and 
unifying. Discriminating is seeing differences, and 
unifying is seeing likenesses. So to say that know- 
ing is both unifying and discriminating is to say the 
mind in knowing sees hkenesses and differences be- 
tween objects, or better, between mental experiences. 
One thing necessary to know a maple tree is to see 
the differences between it and a gooseberry bush, 
and another thing necessary is to see the likeness 
between it and the maple trees seen in the past. 

All Knowing Indirect. — Psychologists say that all 
laiowing is an indirect process. This means that the 
relation grasped in knowing an object is not the rela- 
tion between the mind's present activity and the 
object, for that would be a direct process. In that 
case the meaning would come direct from the object 
to the mind. But this is just the thing that does not 
happen. The meaning comes by way of past ex- 
periences. So the past experience is the thing that 
comes in between the object and the experience ap- 
propriate to it and makes the knowing process in- 
direct. 

Feeling. — Every experience the mind has changes 
it permanently. It never is after an experience what 
it was before. Some of these experiences change 
the mind for the better and some change it for the 
worse, but aU must change the mind permanently in 
some way. The fact that every experience changes 



62 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

the mind permanently is called tlie value of an experi- 
eiic-e in psychology. If the experience is in harmony 
with the growth of the mind towards perfection, the 
experience is said to have a positive value. If the ex- 
perience is not in harmony with the growth of the 
mind toward freedom, the experience is said to have 
a nefjative value. The mind has the ability to a 
greater or less extent of knowing the value of an ex- 
perience to the self. That is to say, it knows, or at 
least thinks it knows, when it has an experience, 
whether the experience is in harmony or in conflict 
with its growth toward freedom. It is no doubt true 
that sometimes an experience is unfavorable to the 
growth toward perfecticm, even when the mind re- 
gards it as favorable. And it holds equally true that 
an experience may be favorable to the growth toward 
freedom, yet the mind regard it as unfavorable. 
When the mind has an experience, and becomes 
aware of the value of this experience to itself, the 
state of mind that arises is feeling: Feelinr/ is the 
state of mind lohich arises luheu the mind becomes a loare 
of the val}/e of an experience to the self. 

An analysis of the above definition reveals the 
following ideas in it: 

1. State of mind. 

2. Becoming aware. 

3. Value of an experience. 

4. An experience. 

5. The self. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY, 63 

By state of mind is meant the internal side of its 
activities. It is the deeper condition of the mind. 
In the activity of a muscle, the whole muscle acts 
together, but the individual cells also act. The activi- 
ties of the mind are analag'ous to the acti\ity of the 
individual cells. Feeling is better called a state of 
mind. 

Becomlnfi aware of simply means becoming con- 
scious of. Value of an e.rperiejice means the effect of 
an experience on the self. Experience means any 
mental change or activity. The self in the broadest 
sense means the mind and the body both, but it is 
usually used in a narrower sense in psychology. It 
means the original capacity of the mind plus the 
effect of experiences on this capacity. 

Love, Hate, and Lidljference. — When the mind has 
an experience which it regards as having a positive 
value to the self, the feeling which arises is love. The 
definition is as follows: Love is the feelinrj tliat arises 
when the mind has a)i experience which it regards as 
having a positive value to the self. 

If the mind regards the experience as having a 
negative value to the self, the feeling that arises is 
hate. The definition is as follows: Hate is the feeling 
that arises ivlien the mind has an experience 7vhich it re- 
gards as having a negative value to the self. 

If the mind regards the experience as having no 
value to the self, the feeling that arises is indifference. 
The definition is as follow^s: Indifference is the feeling 
that arises lohen the mind has an experience ivhich it re- 



64 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

gards as having neither a positive or negative value to 
the self. 

Willing. — Willing is a complex process involving 
both knowing and feeling, but characterized by striv- 
ing to act in some way. The process of willing al- 
ways begins with an impulse. Impulse is an excess 
of energy, or it may be characterized as felt pressure. 
Impulses produce change. There are several kinds 
of impulses. The impulse that urges the bird to 
build its nest is a good illustration of a typical im- 
pulse. By a rather complex process impulse in the 
act of willing is changed into desire. Desire is a feel- 
ing directed towards something with the idea of pos- 
sessing it. And, also, desire in the process of willing 
is changed into choice. Then, lastly, the mind directs 
the activities towards the realization of this choice. 
So the definition for willing is as foUows: Williug is 
the process in< inliich- the iiiind transforms impulse into de- 
sire, desire into choice, and in which the choice seeks to 
realize itself. An analysis of this shows the following 
points: 

1. Impulse. 

2. Desire. 

3. Choice. 

4. The process by which im]iulse becomes de- 
sire. 

5. The process by which desire becomes choice. 

6. The jn'ocess by Avhicli choice seeks to realize 
itself. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 65 

Impulse and desire have been discussed above. 
Choice will be explained after the discussion of "5" 
above. A careful analysis of the process in which 
impulse becomes desire will show that the foUowing 
points are involved: 

1. The mind sees its real condition. 

2. The mind sees its ideal condition. 

3. The mind compares these two. 

4. The mind decides one is better or worse than 
the other. 

5. A feeling of dissatisfaction arises. Then the 
desire arises. 

Illustration. — A student has an impulse to go to a 
lecture — the real condition; he thinks of himself as 
being at the lecture — the ideal condition; he compares 
these two; he decides to be at the lecture would be a 
better condition than to be at home; then he is dissat- 
isfied to be at home, and so desires to have himself at 
the lecture. 

The process in which desire becomes choice in- 
volves what is known as the "conflict of desires." 
That is to say, there is always more than one desire 
from which the mind must select. In the illustration 
given the student probably desired to stay at home 
and study his lesson, but he also desired to go to the 
lecture. Since he could not both go to the lecture 
and stay at home, the two desires conflict. He se- 
lects one to the exclusion of the others, and this act 



66 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

of selecting is the choice. An analysis reveals the fol- 
lowing: 

1. Two or more desires. 
* 2. The mind compares these. 

3. The mind decides which is preferable. 

4. The choosing of the preferable one, which is 
the choice. 

The process by which choice seeks to realize 
itself consists simply of the directing of the activities 
to perform the deed. The directing is purely men- 
tal, but the activities directed may be either mental 
or physical. In the illustration the mind's directing 
the physical activity of going to the lecture was the 
process in which the choice was seeking to realize 
itself. 

Any amount of study of willing in psychology 
could only consist in further develojDing the points 
here discussed. Who has these points well in mind 
has the plan of all treatments of willing. 

In the succeeding chapter the so-called faculties 
of knowing will be discussed. They are Sense-per- 
ception, Memory, Imagination, Conception, Judg- 
ment and Reasoning. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SPIRITUAL NATUKE OF THE CHILD. 

The Three Stages of Kncmnng. — One of the most 
helpful truths concerning the nature of mind is that 
there are three ascending stages of knowing which 
the mind may take with due study and meditation. 
These stages of knowing are called first, second and 
third. The first stage is, also, called the stage of the 
particular; the second is called the stage of the gen- 
eral; and the third is called the stage of the universal. 
By a stage of knowing is meant a jjeriod in the niinirs 
development in which it tends to emphasize a certain set 
of attributes in objects. Thus in the first stage of 
knowing the mind tends to emphasize the particular 
attributes of objects; in the second stage it tends to 
emphasize the common, or general attributes; and in 
the third stage it tends to emphasize the universal at- 
tributes. 

In the first stage of knowing the faculties of mind 
which are predominant are: 1. Sense-perception. 2. 
Memory. 3. Imagination. In the second stage of 
knowing the faculties that predominate are: 1. Con- 
ception. 2. Judgment. 3. Reasoning. 4. System- 
atization. In the third stage of knowing the faculty 
that predominates is, — Intuition, or insight. 



()S 



STUDII'lS IN l'h:i)A(i()(;V. 



'I'lic lollow iiiiJ- (li;ii;i-;iiii will r('\(';il the chissilica- 



lioli: 



MnilMl 



Knowini 



l'\'('lin'; 



VVillin. 



( S(>ns(>-])('i'('f|)ti()ii. 
1st Sla^c I Mciiior.v. 

f I mMtiiiuil ion. 



L'nil Sliiijc 



( '()uci'|it ion. 

.1 luif^llU'llt. 

Ili'iisoiiiiiy'. 
SvsU'iiiatizatinii. 



iJi'il Sla}4(^ I Intuition, or Insi^^lil 



/'ii fjiosc of ('i<i.ssi/ictifi(>ii. It iimst not l)r iiiulcr- 
stood tliat tli('r(> can l)t' an act (if Uiiowinu' in wliicli 
llicrc is no otJH'r mental acti\itv invoKcd; nor can 
llicr(> l)c st^nsc perception, jud^'nieiit or reasoning;' in 
W'hicli no oilier mental ac1i\it,\' is in\(»l\ cd. Tlu' mind 
acts as a unit, and one complete mental acti\it\' in- 
\(il\t's e\'er\' other. It can not he emphasized too 
stroii'^'ly (hid (Oii/coiiijiirlt nioilal (idiri/i/ has iiiro/rcd 
ill il vrvrii ol/icr. 'V\\r\ are tJioiii^'hl of as sc]>ara.1(>, 
Just as one can think i^f the form and \\(>iuht of a lahlo 
as separate. 'This is done merel\' for t he [Ml rpose td" 
help in studw Tluis there is kno\\in<4', ft>elini;' and 
willing;' in every mental acti\ ily. 

Sense iitrcrii/ioii. We tj'et know ledi;'e of the ex- 
teiaial world throuj^h what are called the special 
sensi's. 'rii(\\' are s(>\(M1 in luimher, as follows: I. 
'roiich. l!. 'I\>mperat are senst>. ;>. M iiscida r stMise. 
I. Tasto. f). Smell, (i. Ili'arini;-. 7. Sii;-ht. Sens(»- 
ptM-ception is this aclixitv of the mind inu'cttiiii;' a. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. GU 

kn<)\\i(Hli;-(> of objocts tliroiij^'b the senses. But to 
^et a clcarci- knowle(l.iit> of sense-perception, wo iiiiist 
understand the sensation. This we will now study. 
The Sensniion. — In physiology we learn that there 
are nerve fibers which carry impulses to nerve 
centers, and also those which carry impulses away 
from nerve centers. Those which carry impulses to 
nerve centers are called (iffcrent fibers; those which 
carry impulses away from nci-ve centers are called 
efferent fibers. When some moticm comes in contact 
with the outer endin^? of an afferent nerve fiber, an 
impulse is set up there. This impulse is carried 
along the nerve fibre and to the brain setting u]) a 
change in the brain. Then there is a change in the 
mind corresponding to the change in the brain, and a 
state of consciousness arises from this change in the 
mind. This state of ccmsciousness is tlu^ sensati(m. 
The sensation is in no part physical, but is a wholly 
mental thing. It is a state of consciousness. An 
analysis shows the following stei)s leading u]) to the 
sensation: 

1. Stimulus or stimuli. 

2. Change in outer nerve ending. 
8. Transmission of imi)ulse. 

4. Change in brain. 

5. Corres})(mding change in mind. 

The sixth step is the sensaticm itself; that is, a 
state of consciousness. It is noticeable that four of 
these ste]is ar(^ physical, and the one just bc^fore the 



70 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

actual sensation is mental. Just how the fourth, the 
physical, passes over into the tifth, the mental, no one 
knows. So far as human intelligence is concerned, 
it is a mystery. We know pretty well, however, that 
there is a mental change corresponding to the change 
in the brain. We are now in a position to give the 
following definition for sensati(m: A soisafion is a 
state of co)isciousness arising from a c/ia)i{/e in )iiind cor- 
responding to a change in, the brain caused Ijij some ex- 
ternal stiniuJus. 

Sensations are the material the mind works up 
into know^ledge of external objects. They are anala- 
gous to the threads that are woven into cloth; the 
cloth is analagous to the knowledge, and the weaving 
process is analagous to sense-perception. Thus 
sense-perception is the process of getting meaning 
from the sensations. We are now able to give the 
following definition for it: Sense-i)erception is the 
mental process of interpreting the contbined sensations 
ap2)ropriate to some external object. The product of the 
act of sense-perception is called a percept. A percept 
is an idea appropriate to a particular, material, ex- 
ternal object present in time and space, and never 
present to the mind before. 

Memory. — Every experience the mind has leaves 
a tendency for the mind to act as it acted in that ex- 
perience. This tendency for the mind to act again as 
it has acted is called retention in psychology. Thus 
we learn a definiticm of a noun to-da}^, and to-morrow 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 71 

arc able to give it when called upon; we say we re- 
tained it. But where was it in the meantime'? It only 
remained with the mind as a tendency. That is to 
say, the mind keeps the ability to act as it acted 
when the definition for the noun was learned. When 
the mind acts an exj^erience it has before acted the 
process is usually called reacting. These two ideas, 
retention and reacting, enter into memory. But there 
must also be another idea. When the mind reacts an 
experience, if it is a process of remembering, it must 
be aware that the present experience is one it has had 
before. The process of seeing that the present ex- 
perience is not a new one, but one the mind has had 
before is caUed identifying. The present experience 
is identified with the past experience. This act of 
identifying is the third idea in memory. We are now 
in a position to give the following definition for 
memory: Memory is the miners process in retaining, 
reacting, and identifying past mental experiences. The 
identifying element in memory is the emphasized 
element. Without it, the act could not be called one 
of memory. It would only be an act of sense-percep- 
tion. 

Tlie Law of Memory. — There is but one law of 
memory, and it is as follows: If two or more tilings 
are held together in consciousness at the same time or in 
immediate succession, and one is afterivard presented, it 
is the tendency for tlie others to come into consciousness. 
This process of holding two or more things together 



7^ STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

in consciousness at the same time or in immediate 
succession is just what is meant by associati(m in 
psychology. It is to be noticed that in the law of 
memory things once thought only tend to come into 
consciousness again. They will surely be remem- 
bered if the association is strong enough. The 
strength of the association depends upon the follow- 
ing laws : 

1. Those things which are held together in con- 
sciousness the most often are the most strongly 
associated. 

2. Those things which are held together in con- 
sciousness with the highest degree of healthful 
mental energy are the most strongly associated. 

3. Those things which are held together in con- 
sciousness the most free from entangling relations 
are the most strongly associated. 

4. All associations grow w^eak with time unless 
reacted. 

Imagination. — The mind has the ability of form- 
ing an idea, and then of putting this idea in a partic- 
ular mental picture or image. If one tells you to shut 
your eyes and look at the following described apple 
with the mind's eye, the process, if you see it, is one 
of imagining: A large red apple, three inches in di- 
ameter, almost spherical, with a rotten spot as big as 
your thumb nail on one side, and a worm-hole on the 
other side just above the middle toward the stem end, 
is lying on a platter sitting (m a stand in the center 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 73 

of a room. Form the picture, and you are imagining. 
The pictures formed by the imagination may be almost 
like objects which have been seen or they may be 
highly idealized. In every case the imagination de- 
pends upon the memory for the material tor its ima- 
ges. The Ancients imaged a huge dog with three 
immense heads, whose body bristled with snakes in 
the place of hairs, and whose barks resembled peals 
of thunder, as the guardian of Hades. There are no 
new elements here. They had seen dogs, heads, and 
snakes, and had heard peals of thunder. The only 
new thing is the new combination. What is true of 
this case is true of all. Imagination is dependent on 
sense-perception and memory. The following is a 
good definition for imagination: Imagination is the 
mental process of embodning an idea in a particular form 
or image. 

Conception. — -Sense-perception, memory, and im- 
agination aU deal with particular ideas. Conception, 
too, deals with an idea, but not a particular idea. It 
deals with what is called a general idea, or a general 
notion. But what is a general idea, or notion? If one 
should set out to examine triangles, he would find 
that every triangle is: 1. A figure. 2. Bounded by 
three lines. 3. Having just three angles. He would, 
also, find that each one has several attributes not 
found in all the others, and that each one has some 
attributes not found in any of the others. These last 
two kinds of attributes are necessary to the tri- 



74 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

angles, but do not enter into the general idea of the 
triangle. The general idea, triangle, is made up of 
"1," "2 "and "3." That is to say, it is made up of 
those attributes that could be found in any triangle. 
The definition for a general idea is: A general idea, 
or notion, is an idea appropriate to those attributes pos- 
sessed in common by each object of a class of objects. The 
terms — general idea, general )u)tion, and concept — all 
have the same meaning. This should be remembered. 
The process in which general ideas are formed is con- 
ception. The following is a good definition: Concep- 
tion is the process in ivhich the viind foryns an idea ap>- 
propriate to the combined attributes possessed in common 
by each object of a class of otjjects. 

Method of Forming Concepts. — In actual life the 
method of forming concepts is as follows: First, a 
person sees an object of a class for the first time and 
gets a sort of concept containing many attributes not 
possessed by all the objects of the class; secondly, he 
sees other objects of the class and thus begins to 
drop from the concept the unnecessary attributes: 
this process of eliminaticm is continued until just 
those attributes to be found in each object of the class 
remain. 

Illustration. — The first man seen by a child may 
be one with white skin, black hair, and blue eyes. 
The ccmcei^t of man for the child now contains the 
attributes, wiiite skin, black hair, and blue eyes. 
Later on by seeing other men he drops off these 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 75 

attributes one by one, since they do not belong to all 
men. 

The Logical Steps. — The mind moves forward 
logically in conception in the following steps: 

1. The mind acts an activity appropriate to some 
particular object by thinking several of its attributes. 

2. The mind repeats this process with other 
similar objects. 

3. The mind compares and contrasts these ob- 
jects. 

4. The mind selects and holds in consciousness 
the common attributes and drops from consciousness 
to some extent the uncommon attributes. 

5. The mind generalizes in extending the com- 
mon attributes of the particulars examined to all ob- 
jects of the class. 

6. The mind asserts the general idea. 

7. The mind thinks the name of the general idea. 
Judginent. — The mind gets particular ideas 

through sense-perception, and general ideas through 
conception. In judgment the mind grasps and 
emphasizes the relation between ideas. For example, 
the mind of man had the idea coal, and the idea fuel 
for ages before it ever grasped the relation between 
those ideas. When at last it did, it asserted that coal 
is a fuel. This process of grasping the relation be- 
tween the idea, coal, and the idea, fuel, and asserting 
it was the mind's process of judging. Judgment 
may be defined as follows: Judgment in the poiver bij 



76 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

irhich the )iiiii(1 r/ rasps flic reldfio)/ hcfircen ideas a)al 
asserts it. 

Every judgment is expressed in a sentence, or 
proposition, if expressed at all. Thus the sentence 
is the symbol of the judgment. The sentence bears 
the relation to the judgment of the symbol to the 
thing symbolized. And the judgment bears the rela- 
tion to the sentence of the thing symbolized to the 
symbol. Every judgment has three elements. They 
are called the psj/eJiica/ suhjeef, the pst/ehira/ predicate, 
and the psyehical copula. 

The act of judging is a triple activity of mind; 
that is, a one act made up of three. The following 
are the steps: 

1. The mind grasps an object as an undifferenti- 
ated whole. 

2. The mind isolates some attribute of this 
object. 

3. The mind asserts the relation between the 
object and the isolated attribute. 

Beasoriiitfi. — In judgment the mind emphasizes 
the relation between ideas. In reasoning it empha- 
sizes the relation among judgments. In every act of 
reasoning there are three judgments involved, so re- 
lated that the last is reached because of its relation 
to the other two. The formula of reasoning is this: 
A equals Z; B equals Z; therefore A equals B. The 
definition for reasoning is as follows: Beasoniiaj is 
the mental process of reackinci a jiidcptioit l)ecai(se of its 
relation to two jyrecedinf) judrpnents. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 77 

The sentence was found to be the symbol of the 
judgment. In a Hke manner the symbol of reason- 
ing is called the .'^yl/of/isni. The foUowing is a defini- 
tion for the syllogism: T/ie s{///ogisni w the formal ex- 
pression of the ((ct of reasonhif/, consisting of three prop- 
ositions, the last of whkh is a conclusion from the other 
tioo. The following is an example of the syllogism: 

All animals possess voluntary motion; 

This object is an animal; 

Therefore, this object possesses voluntary 
motion. 

The first two propositions in the syllogism are 
called the premises; one is the major premise, and the 
other is the minor premise. 

The third proposition is called the conclusion. 

The major premise is usually stated first, though 
not always. The three propositions of the syllogism 
may be arranged in different ways making what are 
known as the figures of the syllogism. There are 
three of these figures as follows : 
First figure: 

All animals possess voluntary motion; 

This object is an animal; 

This object possesses voluntary motion. 
Second figure: 

All animals possess voluntary motion; 

This object possesses voluntary motion; 

This object is an animal. 



78 . STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Third figure: 

This object is an animal: 

This object possesses voluntary motion: 

Animals possess voluntary motion. 

('lasses of Reamiiing . — There are as many classes 
of reasoning as there are figures of the syllogism. 
They are called deductioti, kJenfiflcdtioii, and induction. 
The first figure of the syllogism is the symbol of de- 
duction; the second figure is the symbol of identifica- 
tion, and the third figure is the symbol of induction. 
In deduction the mind goes from a general truth to 
some particular truth; in identificati(m the mind goes 
from a general truth to the classificati<m of some par- 
ticular object, and in induction the mind goes from 
some particular object to a general truth. All defini- 
tions should be worked out by inductive reasoning. 
All analysis and parsing in grammar employs identi- 
fying reasoning. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SCHOOL CURRICULUM. 

Meaning of the Term. — The curriculiun is the 
school course of study. It is made up of the various 
subjects studied in scliool. Tlius in the primary, or 
common, schools the curriculum consists of reading, 
writing, spelling, arithmetic, grammar, language, 
history, geography, physiology, and in some places 
music and perhaps some other subjects. In the 
secondary, or high, schools it usually consists of 
algebra and geometry; Latin, compositi(m, rhetoric, 
and literature; botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, 
geology, and astronomy; ancient history, mediaeval 
history, and modern history; drawing and music. It 
is easily seen that the school curriculum is not a fixed 
thing, but that it changes from time to time. The 
subjects in the school curriculum taken as a whole 
divide themselves into groups. Thus there are the 
following groups: 1. The language group consisting 
of reading, writing, spelling, language, composition, 
rhetoric, grammar, literature, Latin, German, etc. 
2. Tlie mathematical group consisting of arithmetic, 
algebra, geometry, trigonometry, etc. 3. The 
natural science group consisting of physiology. 



80 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

botany, zoology, psycht)logy, chemistry, physics, 
astronomy, geology, etc. 4. The history group con- 
sisting of United States history, English history, etc. 
5. The art group consisting of drawing and music, at 
the least. 

Origin of the Cvrriculiiiii. — It is the business of 
the school to educate the child. But the child must 
have something to study to the end that he may get 
knowledge and discipline. So, in general, it may be 
said that the school curriculum originated in part 
from a desire to furnish the pupil something to ex- 
ercise his mind upon, to the end of health and grow^th. 
That is to say, the mind must have exercise to main- 
tain its health, and it growls by its ow^n activities. 
The felt-need for something to furnish a mental 
gymnastic is one of the things which gave rise to the 
school curriculum. This was the disciplinary idea 
from which the curriculum originated. This w^as 
not, in all probability, the foremost idea which 
brought forth the curriculum. The foremost idea 
was the need for useful knowledge. So it may be 
said that the second felt-need which had to do with 
originating the school curriculum was the felt-need 
for useful knowledge. By useful knowledge is meant 
knowledge which furnishes one guidance in right 
living. By guidance in living is meant guidance in: 
1. Treating the body right. H. Treating the mind 
right. 3. Managing one's business affairs right. 4. 
Bringing u]) a family right. 5. Behaving right as a 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 81 

member of society. 6. Spending one's leisure time 
right. 

The scliool curriculum at one time consisted of 
nothing more than reading, writing, spelHng and 
arithmetic. There was a felt-need for some subject, 
the study of which w^ould make the child skillful in 
(1) getting the thought and feeling from discourse; 
and (2) in communicating this thought and feeling in 
the author's own words. This felt-need was the 
origin of reading in the school curriculum. And the 
object of reading is to realize this need. 

There was a felt-need for something that would 
make the children skiUful in the art of making the 
written forms by which thought and feeling are com- 
municated. This felt-need was the origin of the two 
subjects, writing and spelling, in the school curricu- 
lum. Writing emphasizes the form of the script 
letters as w^ell as the connection of these letters into 
words; spelling emphasizes the form of the script 
word as a whole. 

In carrying on transactions with one another 
people have to measure the things exchanged. So 
there was felt a need for some subject, the study of 
which would make the children skillful in measuring 
the things exchanged as well as skillful in measuring 
other things. So this felt-need brought arithmetic 
into the school curriculum, and was thus its origin. 
Likewise w^e could study out the origin of the other 
subjects in the primary school curriculum here, but 



82 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

we can gain a helpful point by doing that under the 
head of: 

Tlie Grotuth of the Currmduni. — As stated above 
the school curriculum of the primary, or common, 
schools, at one time consisted barely of reading, writ- 
ing, spelling, and arithmetic. But it has not re- 
mained so. Many new subjects have been added. 
That is to say, the school curriculum has grown. It 
is interesting and helpful to the teacher to trace out 
the ideas that brought the subjects into the school 
course as it grew, and to compare those ideas with 
what these subjects actually do for the pupils. That 
is, to see whether these subjects have realized in the 
lives of the children the things they were expected 
to realize. 

It was seen that some subject needed to be added 
to the curriculum to teach the boys and girls the 
habit of using good language in communicating their 
thoughts and feelings. So grammar came in to sup- 
ply this need, and for a long time it was expected that 
the study of grammar would actually give the pupils 
the habit of using good language in writing and speak- 
ing. Finally, it became evident that grammar was 
not doing this. The need for some subject to do this 
was still strongly felt. So the next attempt to in- 
troduce some subject to satisfy this want brought 
primary language as a subject into the curriculum. 
The question properly may be asked whether lan- 
guage lessons as usually taught will satisfy this want. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 83 

It was also felt that, since so much of life's suc- 
cess and happiness depends upon the health of the 
physical being, something ought to be in the curricu- 
lum, the study of which would give knowledge valu- 
able for guidance in maintaining the health of the 
body. Thus the attempt to supply something to 
satisfy this want brought physiology and hygiene 
into the curriculum. 

Man learns by experience and by example; that 
is, by his own experience and by the experience of 
others. He must depend upon the experience of the 
race for a large part of his knowledge. These ex- 
periences of the race have been preserved in the form 
of what is called recorded history; and these experi- 
ences thus recorded are the heritage left by the race 
to humanity. The child by studying these experi- 
ences sees that there are in human action a seed time, 
a season of growth, and a fruitage as truly as there 
are these in the world of vegetation. That is to say, he 
sees he must sow, if he would reap, and that he will 
inevitably reap as he sows. These thoughts having 
become firmly fixed in the life of the child, he ought 
more nearly to make his actions in all phases of life 
conform to the highest welfare of his being. The 
felt-need for the study of some subject which will fix 
these principles in the child's mind brought history 
into the primary school curriculum. Does history 
realize this end as usually taught? 

Life of all kinds is very dependent. Plant life is 



84 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

absolutely dependent upon light, heat and moisture; 
animal life is dependent upon plant life and other 
animal life; and each human being is dependent upon 
all these things along with his dependence upon his 
fellow men. This relation of the mutual dependence 
of life, vegetable, animal and human to one another, 
and to light, heat and moisture has led to the wide 
distribution of life over the earth's surface. Now, it 
was felt that some subject whose study would give 
the child a knowledge of the relief forms of the earth; 
light, heat, and moisture; plant life, animal life, and 
human life, in the relation of their mutual distribu- 
tion (m the earth's surface should be in the primary 
school curriculum. And this felt-need is the origin 
of geography as a subject in the primary schools. 

Within the last few years there has been much 
agitation of the thought that the primary school cur- 
riculum should be enriched. In line with this thought 
literature, music, drawing, and nature work have 
been introduced into many elementary school cur- 
ricula, and history and geography have come to be 
taught in the first, second, third, and fourth years of 
the child's school life. The main idea that has pro- 
duced this growth in the curriculum is that the first 
work of the child in school had not been as well 
adapted to his stage of mental development as it 
should be, and that, therefore, was not of a character 
to arouse an enduring, drawing, permanent interest 
in school work in the child. So the felt-need for work 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 85 

more interesting to the child than the formal work in 
reading, writing, spelling and number is largely the 
thing which has produced these changes in the cur- 
riculum. 

A Rational Cvrrkfulum. — The curriculum in our 
schools has been criticised on the ground that it is 
not rational; that is, it is not reasonable. The ques- 
tion, What is a rational, or reasonable, school cur- 
riculum-? at once suggests itself. And to the study 
of this point we are at once led. 

All would agree, no doubt, that that curriculum 
best adapted to the needs of the learner's life is the 
most reasonable, and, therefore, the rational one. 
So, if in some w^ay it can be decided what is best 
suited to the growing life of the child, the solution of 
this problem will be at hand. But in order to get at 
a systematic discussion of this problem, we must 
first decide what the educating process is to do for 
the learner: that is, w^e must decide the purpose of 
the educating process. And to this we turn for 
study. 

The Purpose of the Educathuj Process. — It will be 
remembered that it has been stated that Mr. Herbert 
Spencer says that the purpose of education is "to 
prepare for complete living/' There is unaminity of 
opinion among thinking people everywhere on this 
point. Certainly any work in the educating process 
is to be regarded as good or bad according as it helps 
little or much in hving. Thus when any one shows 



86 8TUDIE8 IN PEDAGOGY. 

how any subject helps in hvhig, he is considered to 
have proven that the study of that subject is valuable. 
The French teacher, when he wishes to show the 
value of the study of French, always does it in terms 
of life; the German teacher and the teacher of Latin 
endeavor to show the use of German and Latin in liv- 
ing. 

It will further be remembered that "Complete 
Living" means: 1. Treating the body right. 2. 
Treating the mind right. 3. Managing one's busi- 
ness affairs right. 4. Bringing up a family right. 5. 
Behaving right in our social relations; that is, as a 
member of the social institutions, — the state, the 
church, the school, and the family. 6. Spending 
our leisure time right. 

The following discussion condensed largely from 
Herbert Spencer's "Education" is fertile in sugges- 
tion on the school curriculum: The only rational 
mode of judging of any school curriculum is, to judge 
in what degree it discharges the function of prepar- 
ing for complete living. This must always be the 
test. 

Maimer of Applijiiid the Test. — This test must be 
applied systematically and throughout all cases, if we 
are to reach any helpful results in our study. Not 
only must we cease from the mere unthinking adop- 
tion of the current fashion in education, but we must 
rise above the primitive, unsystematic style of judg- 
ing of the value of subjects in the educational curricu- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 8^ 

lum. It is not sufficient to merely tliink that the pur- 
suit of some subject gives information v^aluable in life, 
or that this kind of knowledge will be more useful 
than that. But some way must be sought out of 
actually estimating their respective values to the end 
that we may know as far as possible which are most 
deserving of attention. 

Difficult II of the Task. — While this is a difficult 
task, it is of such momentous importance that its dif- 
ficulty is no reason for pusillanimously neglecting to 
think about it. And, if we proceed by careful and 
systematic thinking, we may soon reach valuable re- 
sults. 

The First Step in Applying the Test. — The first step 
is to classify, in order of their importance, the lines 
of activity which make up human life. These are 
readily classified as follows: 1. Those activities put 
forth in direct self-preservation. 2. Those activities 
put forth in securing the necessaries of life, in in- 
direct self-preservation. 3. Those activities put forth 
in properly rearing a family. 4. Those activities put 
forth in maintaining our relations in the social insti- 
tutions. 5. Those activities put forth in spending 
our leisure time. 

The Order of Importance of These Lines. — A little 
consideration shows that these have been arranged in 
the order of their importance. If one were as 
ignorant as the infant of his environment, he would 
almost certainly lose his life in less than a day. And 



f<9> STUDIES IN I>EDAGOGY. 

as absolute ignorance of all other things would not 
bring death so quickly, it seems evident those activi- 
ties spent in direct self-preservation and that knowl- 
edge w^hich furnishes guidance for these activities are 
of foremost importance. 

The activities spent in indirect self-preservation 
are next in importance. These are the activities put 
forth in securing food, clothing, and shelter. That 
these activities come before those put forth in rear- 
ing a family may be seen from the fact that self- 
maintenance makes possible those activities employed 
in rearing a family. Without self-maintenance there 
could be no family life. So those activities employed 
in indirect self-preservation are second to none but 
those needful in direct self-preservation. 

No social life would be possible without the 
family. The family is the most fundamental social 
institution, and the rearing of children alone makes 
possible the state, church, etc. Those activities then 
employed in bringing up children are more important 
than those employed in maintaining the social rela- 
tion in the institutions. Again the goodness of 
society as a whole depends upon the individuals 
which make it, and the quality of the individuals de- 
pends largely upon the family training. Therefore 
the welfare of the family underlies the welfare of 
society. 

The next in importance are those activities put 
forth in fulfilling duties in society. This is true, be- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 89 

cause the various forms of pleasurable activities 
which fill up our leisure hours presuppose social in- 
stitutions. No great degree of development of these 
pleasurable occupations is possible without well 
established social institutions. 

The national Order of Education. — From the fore- 
going, the following is seen to be the rational order of 
education: 1. That education which prepares for 
direct self-preservation. 2. That education which 
prepares for indirect self-preservation. 3. That edu- 
cation wiiich prepares for parenthood, and the bring- 
ing up of a family. 4. That education which prepares 
for fulfilling one's duty in the social institutions. 5. 
That education which prepares for spending right 
one's leisure time. Wliile there may be particular 
exceptions and modifications of this order in the lives 
of individuals, yet there remains these broadly 
marked divisions, and they subordinate one another 
substantially as indicated. 

The Second Step in Applying the Test. — Not all 
knowledge is of equal value to the human race. Some 
may have a vital bearing on all human life for all time; 
some may touch only the lives of a few for but a brief 
period of time; and some again may be so remotely 
related to human life as to have almost no bearing 
upon it. Spencer has accordingly classified knowl- 
edge as follows : 1. Knowledge of intrinsic value. 2, 
Knowledge of quasi-intrinsic value. 3. Knowledge of 
conventional value. Knowledge of intrinsic value is 



90 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

that knowledge which bears 111)011 tlie Hfe of all man- 
kind throughout all time. The knowledge that 
chlorine is a disinfectant, that tuberculosis is a 
disease caused by a microbe, that every thought or 
feeling one has burns away some of his brain sub- 
stance, and scientific knowledge in general, is knowl- 
edge of intrinsic value. These truths will have a 
bearing on human conduct for all time. The extra 
knowledge of our language which the study of Greek 
and Latin gives us is knowledge of quasi-intrinsic 
value. It is of value to a part of humanity for a part 
of time, but is not of value to all mankind for all time. 
Knowledge of conventicmal value is simply fashionable 
knowledge. Much of Greek and Latin, and some 
parts of history, and neighborhood gossip well illus- 
trate knowledge of conventional value. Much that is 
taught in the subjects menticmed scarcely has the re- 
motest bearing upon human activities. It is fashion- 
able to learn such things, and so people go on study- 
ing them without ever having thought out clearly 
what bearing they have on human life. So, in esti- 
mating knowledge, in general, that of intrinsic value 
takes precedence of that of quasi-intrinsic or conven- 
ti(mal value. 

Value of Kriowledge-getting. — The process of get- 
ting knowledge is valuable from two view-points. 
The knowledge obtained furnishes guidance inhuman 
conduct, and the mind is exercised in the act of 
acquirement. The mind develops by exercise. That 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 91 

is to say, the mind learns to think well by exercise in 
thinking. Thus the exercise of the mind to the end 
of development and strength is what is called mental 
discipline. So acquirement of any kind has two 
values: 1. A useful knowledge value. 2. A discipli- 
nary value. 

Thoughts Necessary to a Systeinatic Study of a Cur- 
7'iculum. — There are the following general thoughts 
to be kept in mind in the study of the school curricu- 
lum: 1. Life is divided into several lines of activity 
of successively decreasing importance. Do the sub- 
jects of the school curriculum give knowledge which 
will furnish guidance in some or all of these lines of 
activity^ 2. Knowledge is of three kinds according 
to its worth, — (1) knowledge of intrinsic value; (2) 
knowledge of quasi-intrinsic value; (3) knowledge of 
conventional value. Is the knowledge given by the 
study of the various subjects of the school curriculum 
of intrinsic, quasi-intrinsic, or conventional value? 3. 
Acquirement of all kinds has two values, — (1) a use- 
ful knowledge value; (2) a disciplinary value. Do the 
various subjects of the school curriculum as taught 
give much useful knowledge and good discipline; or 
do some give good discipline and knowledge of little 
worth, and others give knowledge of much more 
worth, but furnish poor discipline? 

Discipllnanj Value Not Antagonistic to the Value as 
Useful Knoivledge. — There somehow seems to be a 
thought current to a greater or less extent, that some 



92 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

subjects are needed in the schoc^l curriculum because 
they have an excellent disciplinary value, even though 
their study does not give knowledge of much use in 
guiding one in right living; and another phase of the 
same thought is, that some subjects are needed in the 
school course because of the useful knowledge their 
pursuit gives, even though their study does not 
furnish mental discipline. This thought in its two 
phases has, without doubt, entered too largely into 
the considerations in making school curricula in the 
past. We may well ask ourselves the following ques- 
ti(ms: Is it not possible that those subjects the pur- 
suit of which will give knowledge the most useful for 
guidance in correct living are the very same ones the 
pursuit of which will give the best disciplined Are 
there not enough subjects to make up a good curricu- 
lum which are among the very best as disciplinary 
subjects, and yet whose pursuit will furnish the 
knowledge most helpful for guidance in right living? 
Is not human life too short and human energy too 
limited to study some subjects for discii)line alone 
and others for knowledge alone? 

In the solution of any educational i)r(>l)lem hints 
usually may be had from nature. Everywhere in 
nature we find capacities developed by performing 
the functions which it is their office to loerform, 
and not through some exercise artificially arranged 
to tit them for the performance of these duties. The 
hunter acquires the discipline which makes him a 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 93 

successful hunter only by the pursuit of game. The 
highest development of a power always results from 
the exercise in the work which the c(mditions of life 
require of it. The acquisiti(m which gives knowledge 
the most valuable for guidance in right living must, 
according to the law of the "Economy of Nature," 
at the same time furnish the very best discipline. 
Dr. Arnold Tompkins says, in substance, the follow- 
ing on this point: This making discipline almost the 
entire object in teaching "is responsible for a sort of 
mediseval dialectics and fruitless beating of the air in 
teaching which passes as superfine method. It is 
Fichte's idealism and subjectivity run mad." 

Direct Self- preHer vat ion. — The knowledge that 
gives guidance in these lines of human activities, too 
important to be left to be taught in school. Nature 
has taken into her own hands to teach. She is teach- 
ing the child his daily lessons in direct self-preserva- 
tion by means of the falls, bruises, scratches, cuts, 
burns, and pains which befall him every day in his 
early life. Mother Nature teaches the lesson weh 
that when one of the laws of life is violated, pain and 
misery are the inevitable result. But not being 
aware of all the safeguards which Nature has fur- 
nished us, we often violate her laws. What subjects 
have we in the school curriculum whose pursuit will 
furnish knowledge for guidance in these activitiesV 
The answer to this question is, that we have physi- 
ology and hygiene. The pursuit of these subjects 



94 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

gives us the knowledge that our physical sensations 
and desires, — cold, heat, fatigue, hunger, thirst, etc., 
— are promptings which, if obeyed, would, to a large 
extent, provide for direct self-preservation. But so 
great an ignorance is there even yet of the laws of life 
that men do not appreciate fully enough that the sen- 
saticms are the natural guides in direct self-preserva- 
tion. Physiology and hygiene have it as their Held of 
work to teach a better general knowledge of the laws 
of physical life and a fuller appreciation of the neces- 
sity and momentous importance of their obedience. 

Surely no one will doubt the value of physiology 
and hygiene in the school curriculum who, "not to 
dwell on the natural pain, the weariness, the gloom, 
the waste of time and money thus entailed," will 
"only consider how greatly ill-health hinders the dis- 
charge of all duties, makes business often impossible, 
and always more difficult; produces an irritability 
fatal to the right management of children; puts the 
function of citizenship out of the question; and makes 
amusement ;i bore. Is it not clear that the physical 
sins, partly our forefathers' and partly our own, 
which produce this ill-health, deduct more from com- 
plete living than any thing else, and to a great extent 
make life a failure and a burden instead of a benefac- 
tion and a pleasure?" And it may further be added 
to this that the average length of human life is, by 
th(^ violatiim of the laws of life, largely cut short. 

Thus we come to see the dignified position of 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 95 

physiology and hygiene in the school curriculum. 
This is very important for every teacher to see and 
feel to the end that he may teach these sciences con- 
scientiously and well. 

Indirect Self-'iireservatioii. — The knowledge which 
furnishes guidance in indirect self-preservation is 
that which helps in making a living. Every one rec- 
ognizes the importance of this: and, indeed, by too 
many persons it is regarded as the main end and ob- 
ject of education. While every one is willing to agree 
that knowledge which furnishes guidance in acquir- 
ing a livelihood is of high importance, yet few have 
systematically thought out just M^hat knowledge will 
do this best. In order to study this question to the 
best advantage, it is necessary to notice the main 
things men are employed in, and to this we turn. 

Wliat Things Men are Employed in. — The main 
lines of work in which men who are working for a 
livelihood are employed are as follow^s: 1. The pro- 
duction of commodities. 2. The preparation of com- 
modities. 3. The distributi(m of commodities. By 
the production of commodities is meant the produc- 
tion of corn, wheat, hay, oats, beef, pork, coal, iron, 
wool, flax, poultry, fruit, lumber, leather, silk, cotton, 
Unen, liemp, and a large number of other similar 
things. The preparation of commodities refers 
mainly to their manufacture; as the manufacture of 
machinery, food, clothing, etc. Distribution refers 
to sending such things to the points of consumption. 



90 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Now, the question may well be asked, What knowl- 
edge gives the greatest guidance in these things? It 
is evident that commodities could not be distributed 
without a knowledge of reading, writing, spelling, 
and arithmetic. Distributi(m requires railroads, 
canals, bridges, docks, the dredging of rivers; loco- 
motives, cars, steamboats, and steam-ships. But the 
knowledge which guides in the construction of these 
is a knowledge of mathematics, physics, chemistry, 
and mechanics. That knowdedge which guides in the 
preparation of commodities is, again, a knowledge 
of chemistry, physics, mathematics, and mechanics. 
That knowledge which gives guidance in the produc- 
tion of these various things again is a knowledge of 
chemistry, j^hysics, geology, zoology, botany, and 
bacteriology. In short, the knowledge which has 
guided in the development of the production, prepara- 
tion, and distribution of commodities is primarily 
science: and secondarily, mathematics, reading, writ- 
ing, and spelling. Thus we see those subjects whose 
study furnishes knowledge that gives guidance in 
both direct and indirect self-preservation are almost 
wholly scloice. 

The Rearing of a Family. — One is led to wonder, 
when he thinks of our school curricula, wdiether this 
division of human activities is to be considered of so 
little imi)ortance that no knowledge is needed to 
furnish guidance for them. On this point Herbert 
Spencer says: "If by some strange chance not a 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 97 

vestige of us descended to the remote future save a 
pile of our school-books or some college examination 
papers, we may imagine how puzzled an antiquary of 
the period would be on finding in them no indication 
that the learners were ever likely to be parents. 
'This must have been the curriculum for their 
celibates, ' we may fancy him concluding. 'I perceive 
here an elaborate preparation for many things: 
especially for reading the books of extinct nations 
and co-existing nations — from which indeed it seems 
that these people had very little worth reading in 
their own tongue; but I find no reference whatever to 
the bringing up of children. They could not have 
been so absurd as to omit all training for this gravest 
of responsibilities. Evidently then, this was the 
school course of one of their monastic orders." 

However, there are in the school curriculum 
physiology and hygiene whose pursuit will give 
knowledge which furnishes guidance in bringing up 
children so far as the laws of their physical beings 
are concerned. But not enough emphasis is placed 
upon these subjects. The value of the knowledge 
furnished by their study has not yet been fully 
appreciated. On this point again we quote Spencer: 
"To tens of thousands that are killed, add hundreds 
of thousands that survive with feeble constituti(ms, 
and millions that grow up with constitutions not as 
strong as they should be; and you will have some idea 
of the curse inflicted on their offspring by parents 
ignorant of the laws of life. " 



98 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

The child not only has a physical nature, but he 
also has a moral and mental nature. For guidance in 
the moral and mental training of children there is 
next to nothing in our school curricula whose study 
gives the requisite knowledge. Psychology and child- 
study are the subjects whose pursuit gives the knowl- 
edge valuable for guidance in these activities. But 
few schools have these subjects in their curricula at 
present, and probably will not for a good number of 
years yet. "Be this as it may, however, here are the 
indisputable facts: that the development of children 
in mind and body rigorously obeys certain laws; that 
unless these laws are in some degree conformed to 
by parents, death is inevitable; that unless they are 
in a great degree conformed to, there must result 
serious physical and mental defects: and that only 
when they are completely conformed to, can a perfect 
maturity be reached. " 

Man's Duties in Social Institufions. — When one 
asks himself what subjects there are in the school 
curriculum the pursuit of which furnishes knowledge 
valuable for guidance in social duties, his mind turns 
to history. For it has been asserted over and over 
again that the study of history is to make good 
citizens. But when one stops to think whether 
history really does very much toward making good 
citizens, as usually taught, it does not seem very 
clear. It is safe to say that if history were properly 
taught, it would give a large stock of knowledge valu- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 99 

able in furnishing guidance not only in citizenship, 
but in the other institutions of society. But in order 
that it may give this guidance, history must not be 
taught as a "record of events;" neither must it be 
taught as isolated events, nor must the entire time 
be spent on tlie state as an institution of society. To 
accomplish this desired result history must be re- 
garded as the strnr/gle of the race in its efforts towards 
hif/her life. This struggle must be seen to have been 
one in all the institutions of society, — the family, the 
school, the church, industrial life, and the state. It 
must be seen, too, that in human action there is a 
seed-time, a period of growth, and a fruitage as truly 
as in the vegetable world. But as history is often 
taught it certainly is not worth much for guidance in 
man's social activities. 

Literature, if rightly taught, is a good subject to 
furnish guidance in this line of human activities. 

The interpretation of both history and literature 
requires a knowledge of psychology. If one knew 
absolutely nothing about the human mind, he could 
not interpret history or literature at aU. And cer- 
tainly one who has an organized, systematic knowl- 
edge of psychology will interpret better than he who 
has but a fragmentary, unorganized knowledge of 
psychology. Spencer speaks as follows on this point: 
"Without an acquaintance with the general truths of 
biology and psychology, rational interpretation of 
social phenomena is impossible." And again, "all 



loo STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

social phenomena are phenomena of life — are the 
most complex manifestations of life — are ultimately 
dependent (m the laws of life — and can be understood 
only when the laws of life are understood. " Thus, 
then, we see that for the regulation of this fourth 
division of human activities, we are, as before, de- 
pendent on science. 

Spending Leisure Time. — Wliile "life should be 
full of earnest work," and "all labcn- is noble and 
holy," yet a life with no leisure is drudgery, and is 
not most to be desired. All should have some leisure 
time, and should know how to spend it. This time 
should be spent in the enjoyment of Nature, in the 
enjoyment of literature, and in the enjoyment of fine 
arts, — Architecture, Sculpture, Music, Painting, and 
Poetry. The subjects whose pursuit will furnish 
knowledge valuable to guide one in the enjoyment of 
nature are, of course, those subjects which treat of 
Nature. That is to say, they are the natural science 
subjects; botany, zoology, geology, astronomy, chem- 
istry, and physics. That subject which gives knowl- 
edge valuable for guidance in enjoying literature is 
directly the school subject, literature. And to this 
sh(juld be added psychology, which aids largely in the 
interpretation of literature. Music, now in many 
school courses, is the subject which gives ability to 
enjoy music. In the average school curriculum there 
is nothing which directly prepares one to enjoy 
architecture, sculpture, and painting. For the en- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. lOl 

joyment of poetry literature, as a subject, and psy- 
chology prepare as. 

From this study of the school curriculum one 
wonders why so much time in many schools is sjDent 
on Latin and Greek. It is difficult to show how the 
study of Latin and Greek will give knowledge valu- 
able to any large extent for guidance in living. In 
fact, they have not much claim to a place in a school 
curriculum because of the valuable knowledge their 
pursuit furnishes. Their claim to a place in the 
school curriculum rests upon the idea that they are 
good disciplinary studies. But we have seen in 
previous study that it never pays best to study a 
thing merely for discipline when the world is so full 
of subject-matter the mastery of which gives the best 
discipline and valuable knowledge, too. 

Most Valuable Knoivledge. — The whole study of the 
school curriculum points to the fact that those sub- 
jects whose study gives the most valuable knowledge 
for guidance in living constitute the group called 
science. Science has liberated humanity from the 
bondage of superstition. Science has tunneled 
mountains, bridged rivers, and spanned continents. 
Science has harnessed waterfalls that they may do 
man's bidding. Science has made the lightning to 
minister to man's wants. Science has prevented 
plagues, stamped out zymotic diseases, and made it 
possible for man to inhabit every part of the earth. 
In short, science has been the vitalizing force which 



102 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

has raised the Anglo-Saxon race from mediasvcil bar- 
barism to the civilization at the close of this, the nine- 
teenth century. Science more than all other things 
has wrought these changes in family, church, state, 
and industrial life. 

Religious Aspect of Science. — The following from 
Herbert Spencer on the religious aspect of science is 
worthy of careful attention from every teacher: "It 
(science) alone can give us true conceptions of our- 
selves and our relation to the mysteries of existence. 
At the same time that it shows all which can be 
known, it shows us the limits beyond which we can 
know nothing. Not by dogmatic assertions does it 
teach the impossibility of comprehending the ulti- 
mate cause of things; but it leads us clearly to recog- 
nize this impossibility by bringing us in every direc- 
tion to boundaries we can not cross. It realizes to 
us in a way which nothing else can, the littleness of 
human intelligence in the face of that which trans- 
cends intelligence. While towards the traditions and 
authorities of men its attitude may be proud, before 
the impenetrable veil which hides the Absolute its 
attitude is humble — a true pride and a true humility. " 
"Only the genuine man of science, we say, can truly 
know how utterly beyond, not only human knowledge, 
but human conception, is the Universal Power of 
which Nature, and Life, and Thought are manifesta- 
tions. " 

(Jhild-Studii (1)1(1 the ('Krvicvhini. — We will not lose 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY, 103 

sight of the fact that we started out to see whether 
our school curriculum is a rational one or not. And 
in pursuit of a solution of this problem we have found 
out what subjects are the most valuable for study. 
But there is another phase of this subject to be 
studied before we can decide whether or not the 
school curriculum is a rational one. The question is, 
Are the subjects in the school course taught at the 
time in the child 's life when they are best adapted to 
his stage of development? No one would say a school 
curriculum is rational that provides the study of 
logic, psychology, or calculus for the child of eight. 
In the solution of this problem child-study helps us. 
Much systematic, painstaking, and exact study has 
recently been given to children. To many people it 
seems absurd that anything very new or very re- 
remarkable should just now be found out about 
children. And many oppose it, or like to speak of it 
in a disparaging manner. But this opposition proves 
nothing conclusively, for students of history know 
that every advance in science has met similar opposi- 
tion. For instance, the opposition to astronomy. 

Changes in Curriculum Suggested by Child Psychol- 
ogy. — "Our increasing knowledge of the child's 
mind, his muscular and nervous system, and his 
sx3ecial senses points indubitably to the ccmclusion 
that reading and writing, are subjects which do not 
belong to the early years of school life, but to a later 
period, and that other subjects now studied later are 



104 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

better adapted to this early stage of development. 
Wliat is thus indicated of reading and writing may be 
affirmed also of drawing and arithmetic:" The 
physiological and psychological reasons for the above 
statement can not be discussed here. Suffice it to 
say that the study of these things early in school life 
produces nervous diseases, and arrested develop- 
ment; also, diseases of the eye, particularly, myopia. 
There is, too, a great loss of time and energy, and bad 
mental habits are formed. Child-study undoubtedly 
points to the fact that nattire studij, oral Jilatorii, and 
story, and free activity of the larger movements of the 
body should constitute the curriculum for about the 
first four years of the child's school life, and that 
reading, writing, spelling, dramng and arithmetic 
should come later. 

So the answer derived from our study is, that we 
certainly have not, as yet, a rational school curricu- 
lum. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE TEACHER. 

Importance of the Teacher. — While from the stand- 
point of the work the school has to do the learner is 
the most important element in the school, there 
certainly is reason for regarding the teacher the most 
important element of the school from another view- 
point. It is true that the school exists for the 
learner, and without him there would be no teacher, 
school house, curriculum, or school oflicers. The de- 
velopment in the child's life is the end to be attained, 
and all parts and processes in school work are means 
to this end. The end is always more important than 
the means in all rational processes. So, in a sense, 
the teacher stands in the relation to the student of 
means to end. But when we look at the teacher as 
the element in the school upon which its success or 
failure so largely depends, that is, from the view- 
point of the school performing its work, the teacher 
seems the most important element of the school. 
There is much truth in the statement, "As the 
teacher is, so will be the school." He is the life- 
giving element in the school. If the teacher is pro- 
perly qualified, loves his work, and has a sympathetic 



106 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

insight into the hves of his pupils, hardly anything 
can make a failure of his school. 

Dutienofthe Teacher. — The duties of the teacher 
are, indeed, many. He must poke the fire, sweep the 
floor, keep proper ventilation, oversee the care of 
school grounds, and vigilantly watch school property; 
tie up cut fingers, doctor bruised heads and limbs, 
soothe the sorrows of some and rejoice in the joy of 
others; encourage the brave, generous and true; 
frown upon the cowardly, selfish and deceitful. He 
must assign lessons, hear recitations, correct the 
wayward, and encourage the good of all kinds. From 
this inventory of the teacher's duties it seems at first 
sight as if we can get nothing but chaos. A little 
thought, though, will show that these duties may be 
grouped into two classes: 1. His duties in keeping 
the organization running with the least possible fric- 
ti(m, — governing. l\ His duties in leading the child 
into those experiences which will constantly make 
for truth and righteousness, — teaching. 

(h)veruhui. — A mistake the teacher often makes 
in school is in thinking he is a legislator as well as an 
executive. He thinks this and so acts that the 
students think it. No worse mistake than this can 
be made in school government. Instead of the 
teacher's thinking that he is a legislator and that 
laws of the school originate in him, he should under- 
stand that the laws of the school are inherent in the 
organism itself. The pupils siioulcl be led by the 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 107 

conduct of the teacher to appreciate this fact, in so 
far as they are able, also. The teacher is governor in 
that it is his duty to caU attention to the laws of the 
school, explain them, and execute them. This ques- 
tion will receive a fuller discussion in a succeeding 

chapter. 

Teaching.— The teacher's duties in teaching are 
both positive and negative. From the positive side 
he is to guide the child in the development of ah that 
is good in his nature, and in the acquisition of knowl- 
edge which wiU furnish guidance in right living. 
While the child is born with capacities for becoming 
good, he has also capacities for becoming bad. "The 
child inherits not only the good proclivities and pro- 
pensities of his long line of ancestors, but he inherits 
also bad feelings and emotions. His heart is not 
altogether a good heart; it overflows not only in good- 
ness but also at times more or less frequent, in 
selfishness, rancor, bitterness, cowardliness: in short 
in excesses and defects of various kinds. " So, from 
the negative side the teacher will find it his duty to 
ehminate the evil tendencies from the child's nature. 

Positive Duties. — Every experience the child has 
affects him more or less permanently. Those experi- 
ences which hinder the development of the better 
self may be said to have a negative value. So, the 
teacher's positive duties are to arouse the experiences 
in the life of the child which constantly lift him to a 
higher plane of living. Such experiences are along 



108 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

six lines, — physical, intellectual, aesthetic, social, 
moral, and religious. And this is what it means to 
teach, considered from the positive side. That is to 
say, to teach is to arouse those experiences — physi- 
cal, intellectual, SBsthetic, social, moral and religious 
— in the life of the learner to the end that he may con- 
tinuously grow into a higher life. 

Negative Duties. — But the teacher must not lose 
sight of the fact that the tendencies, propensities and 
proclivities for wrong doing born in the child, in- 
herited from his long line of ancestry must be elimi- 
nated. Some teachers make a mistake by thinking 
the child is naturally good. Rousseau made this very 
mistake in his education of Emile. The child is a 
young savage, and the savage characteristics are to 
be eliminated from his life. But these characteris- 
tics can not be effectively suppressed in the life of the 
child by simply attempting to root them out without 
supplying their place with something. That is to 
say, education can not be alone negative or not even 
largely negative. The only safe plan is to eliminate 
the bad by building up the good in its place. No 
teacher or parent will succeed well in educating his 
children who everlastingly has his eye fixed on the 
things which the children ought not to do. He must 
supply the good to take the place of the bad. In 
teaching, as well as in algebra, a good way to get rid 
of the undesirable element is to eliminate by substi- 
tution. An element must not be removed and a 
vacuum left. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 109 

Characteristics of the Teacher. — In studying the 
characteristics of a teacher one is impressed, at the 
start, with the fact that there are some qualities the 
teacher must have, if he teaches at all, and that there 
are others desirable which not aU can possess. Of 
the first class scholarship is an example, and of the 
second class good health and fine native ability are 
examples. The first class of attributes of the teacher 
we may call necessary attributes; the second may be 
called snjyplemenlary. Without the first set the 
teacher must be a failure. The second set, while not 
absolutely necessary to the success of the teacher, 
are desirable and facilitate the ease with which suc- 
cess is attained. 

Necessary Characteristics. — As said above, these 
are absolutely necessary to any marked degree of 
success on the part of the teacher, and are as follows: 
1. Strong moral character. 2. Scholarship. 3. Pro- 
fessional preparation. 4. Energetic, student's habits. 
5. The habit of daily preparation. 6. Love of occupa- 
tion. 7. Sympathy with child-life. These will be 
studied somewhat in detaU. 

Strong Moral Character. — About 1650 Comenius 
said, in substance, "The teacher should be an ex- 
example, in person and conduct, of what he requires 
of his pupils." Comenius said a great may true 
things, but he never said a truer thing than this. 
And it is just as true to-day as it was when it was first 
said. It is sincerely to be hoped that we all believe 



110 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Iroiii our study of the purpose of education, that a 
high type of moral manhood and womanhood is the 
end to be sought in all school work, and that all the 
»j, rest of the school and school processes stand in the 
relati(m of means to this as the end. And since we 
are better understanding the power of suggestion, we 
begin to realize what an influence on the life of 
children the example of the teacher has. Slovenly 
habits of thought, slovenly habits of dress; slang, 
impure English, profanity, by -words; smoking, chew- 
ing tobacco, dishonesty, injustice and selfishness all 
imjDress the life of the child and tend to reproduce 
themselves in him. No teacher who uses tobacco — 
smokes or chews — is careless of his English, or in 
any way shows himself cowardly or dishonest can be 
as good a man as he would be without those traits, 
and since anything which detracts from manhood 
detracts from the teacher, it is equally true that he 
can not be as good a teacher as he would be without 
those characteristics. 

But while all of us can agree as to the desirability 
of strong moral character for the teacher, to talk of it 
in the abstract without knowing very definitely what 
it means is not sufficiently helpful. An analysis will 
show that, at the least, the following elements enter 
into moral character: 1. A knowledge of right and 
wrong. 2. Truthfulness. 8. Honesty. 4. Justness. 
."). Habits of activity. 0. S(>lf-conti-o]. Each of these 
will be studied briefly. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. Ill 

K)unr/e(If/e of Bight cokJ Wnmr/. — It will be recalled 
that this very point was studied in a previous chapter, 
and the conclusion was reached that in order for one 
to have strong moral character he must have ability 
to think out the right and wrong in human activity. 
A man's motive may be good and the activity 
prompted by that motive be very bad. To say that a 
man may have strong moral character and be at the 
same time ignorant of the laws of common living and 
every-day actions is to place a premium on ignorance. 
It is certainly a doctrine that will result in much evil 
to hold that an act is good provided it is done with 
good intenti(ms, notwithstanding much human misery 
and unhappiness result from it. 

Truthfi(lnes.s. — It seems so evident that truthful- 
ness is an element of morality that it needs no study 
to show it. There is a phase of this jioint which 
enters largely into school work. Teachers have 
feared to say "I don't know," lest pupils would lose 
confidence in their ability. It does not follow that if 
the teacher honestly acknowledges he does not know, 
when it is the case, the pupils will lose c(mtidence in 
his ability. If it did have to be so, it would still be a 
question of whether it is preferable for students to 
lose confidence in one's ability, or to lose confidence 
in one's truthfulness. But students are reasonable. 
They do not expect that the teacher will never make 
a mistake, nor that he will kncnv the correct answer 
to every question that comes up. They further know 



112 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

that tliey have no right to expect so much, but they 
also know that they have a right to expect the teacher 
to be perfectly truthful. 

Honestij. — Honesty and truthfulness seem much 
the same thing, as elements of character. They, 
however, emphasize different phases of moral char 
acter. Truthfulness refers to the representation of 
things as they are, and so refers to one's represent- 
ing things thus. H(mesty refers to uprightness in 
the actions of one person to another. In honesty 
questions of advantage and disadvantage are involved. 
There are many ways in which a teacher's honesty is 
involved in school work. The student's instinct for 
truth and honesty will assert itself to the extent that 
he will appreciate those qualities in a teacher. And 
pupils are quick to detect these as well as the oppo- 
site. "It is a great misfortune for a child to be 
under the influence of a teacher who deceives patrons 
and visitors as to the real attainments of pupils; who 
trains his pupils to seem to know what they do not 
know — as in public examinations, so called; who 
assigns false reasons for his acts; who pretends not to 
be w^atching pupils that he may 'catch them in mis- 
chief;' who makes promises that he does not intend to 
keep, or, what is about as bad, forgets to keep; who 
pretends to know that of which he is ignorant; who 
marks i:)upils in the absence of knowledge; or who, in 
other ways, departs from the truth. In truthful- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 113 

ness, the teacher can not be a sign-board. He must 
himself go the way he points. " 

Justness. — In school work, justice does not mean 
that all students must be treated alike. It is a tradi- 
tional maxim of school which has worked much evil, 
that all students must be treated alike. This usually 
refers to corrections and rewards. Now, scarcely 
any one would think that in the act of teaching all are 
to be taught in just the same way, but somehow in 
the matter of corrections and rewards the idea is 
more or less prevalent that all students are to be 
treated in the same way. In the matter of being just 
individual difference of children must be taken into 
consideration as well as in the teaching act. A little 
thought here will call to the mind of every student 
and teacher numerous illustrations of this point. 

It requires some firmness on the part of the 
teacher to be just. The teacher may err from the 
side of kindness, or from a hypercritical spirit. Too 
often the teacher because of kindness, I think, fails 
to have the student see just what his recitation or 
paper is worth. A paper graded on the scale of a 
hundred is marked seventy-five per cent, when 
justice would show it to be worth thirty or forty per 
cent. A recitation worth nothing is smoothed over 
and patched up by the teacher tiU the pupil is de- 
ceived into believing that he has done something 
creditable. Justice may at times seem severe, but 
its very severity is educative in a high degree. 



114 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Justice after a period of growth always brings a 
fruitage much to be desired. The profession is in 
need of teachers with courage to give the children 
credit for just what they merit, no more and no less. 

Habits of Activity. — No one can be a sluggard and 
be a moral man. Morality means activity. There 
are some jjeople who think that if one simply does no 
harm he is entitled to be called good. That is to say, 
some hold that activity is not a necessary element of 
goodness in man. A little study here, however, 
shows the fallacy of this doctrine. If one asks him- 
self the question, "Wlien is my lead pencil good?" or 
"What is a good knife?" and stops to think out the 
answer, he will find that he will soon reach the con- 
clusion that the lead pencil or knife is good that does 
its work well. That is, goodness refers to the ability 
or adaptability of a thing to do its work. And this is 
the meaning those very persons who hold this 
peculiar view regarding goodness have concerning all 
things except man. How men are an exception to 
this general truth is not clear. Also, if a man who 
does nothing either good or bad and thus does no 
harm,- is good, the question, "Wlmtis he good for?" 
suggests at once the answer, "good-for-nothing." It 
can not be made too strong that, under normal cir- 
cumstances, a strong moral character means a life of 
intense activity. 

The teaching professicm has no need of teachers 
who Und nothing to do after 4:(K> p. M. and before 8:30 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY, 115 

A. M. And least of all have the growing lives of the 
children need for such teachers. 

Self-control. — It seems unnecessary to emphasize 
the fact that self-control is an element of morality. 
A brief study of the lines of self-control is, however, 
in order. Though scientifically control is usually 
classified as (1) physical; (2) prudential, and (3) moral, 
for our purpose it maybe thought of as: 1. Control 
of the appetites. 2. Control of one's actions. 3. 
Control of one 's language. 

No person who lets his appetites go without re- 
straint can be a moral person. "No heart is so pure, 
no soul is so noble, that physical appetite long un- 
restrained does not corrupt. Every mother has it in 
her power to form the tastes and appetites of her 
children. They are always /ormecZ, but the process of 
re-forming is frequently a heart-breaking failure." 
Now, the teacher may have an influence in this /o>"m- 
infl of tastes, but not until he has correctly formed 
his own. Many a teacher has lost his opportunities 
for doing good in a school by lack of ability to act 
calmly and reasonably under trying circumstances. 
A successful teacher must guard his actions not only 
under trying circumstances, but all the time, even 
under the most usual circumstances. 

Controlling one's language is certainly an ele- 
ment in moral character under any consideration, but 
the control of the teacher's language is an element of 
great impcn-tance in successful teaching. A word of 



116 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

encouragement here, a kind word there; a word of 
approval for this effort, a word of disapproval for lack 
of effort; a mild, pleasing tone at all times; such, other 
things equal, are am(mg the most important elements 
that go to make the ideal teacher. Sarcasm, irony, 
blustering, boisterous tcmes keyed to a high pitch are 
among the most disorganizing attributes a teacher 
can possess. 

Scholarship. — That a teacher must possess 
scholarship in order to teach at all is unquestioned. 
No one can teach what he does not know, and it is 
just as true that no one can teach ive/l what he does 
not know well. Nothing gives more confidence to the 
teacher, and nothing is more inspiring to the pupils 
than to know that he is master of his subject. It is 
a deplorable condition of things that compels teachers 
to teach subjects about which they know barely 
enough to make a grade for license. To teach well a 
subject a teacher should know it first and last and all 
the way between. 

A school subject is a group of facts, these facts 
having a relation among themselves peculiar to that 
subject alone. The teacher who knows his subject 
will not only see these facts, but he will see the rela- 
tion of these facts to each other and to the subject as 
a whole. With such a knowledge of his subject the 
teacher sees the end from the beginning, is able to 
distinguish the important from the unim])()rtant, and 
to organize his work. A lack of scholarshi}) makes 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 117 

the teacher a slave to a text-book, instead of being as 
he should be a source of self-directiveness in the sub- 
ject. Other things equal, the teacher who knows his 
subject well will certainly do superior teaching-. 

Professional Preijaratkm. — Professional prepara- 
tion from the teacher's view-point means a mastery 
to a greater or less extent of those subjects that wih 
furnish the teacher guidance in his actual work in 
the school-room. Everyone who enters the profes- 
sions of medicine or law recognizes the need of study 
which will give guidance in his special work. That 
is to say, special preparation is required for profes- 
sional work. This is not less true in the teacher's 
work than in the other professions. A brief study 
will show that a teacher's professional preparation 
consists in general of the following: 

1. A knowledge of the laws of life. 

2. A knowledge of the purpose of education. 

3. A knowledge of methods. 

4. Practice in the art of teaching. 

Each of these wiU be studied to some extent. 

A Knoivledge of the Laws of Life.— The life of the ' 
child presents itself to the teacher in two phases,— 
physical and spiritual. The teacher learns the laws 
of the child's physical hfe in the pursuit of physiology } 
and hygiene. And the subject which treats of the 
child's mental hfe is psychology. So this brings us 
to the discussion of the question. Must the success- 
ful teacher know physiology, hygiene and psychol- 



118 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

ogyv We can study this question in two ways. 
First, we can depend upon our owii ability to think it 
out; and secondly, we can study what our educational 
thinkers have thought about it. 

What Our Study Shown. — If we will remember 
that the educational process is both a jihysical and 
spiritual one, but always a living process whose suc- 
cess is to be measured in terms of the child's life, we 
will be in the right attitude of mind to study the 
question. 

If a teacher knew absolutely nothing of the laws 
of life, he could not teach school a day, an hour, or 
even a minute. He could not tell whether beef or 
arsenic would be food; whether a child would be 
comfortable in an atmosphere at freezing point or at 
the boiling point: whether he would be more comfort- 
able sitting down, running, or standing o\\ his head; 
nor could he decide on any physiological or hygienic 
question concerning the child's welfare. Neither 
could he tell how, when, or why to teach any point of 
knowledge. He would not know w^hether to begin 
the study of geometry, logic, or reading with the 
child of six or Avith the child of sixteen. Without 
some knowledge of the laws of life, the teacher could 
not (1) provide a suitable course of study; (2) arrange 
his school into classes; (3) assign lessons suited to his 
pupils; (4) interpret his pupil's behavior; (.")) know 
whether his pupils grasp the topics of the lesson. In 
short, he could not teach at all. Then to teach school 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 119 

at all a teacher must know something of physiology, 
hygiene, and psychology. Every teacher of course 
knows something of these subjects, but it is worth 
while to stop long enough to examine into the condi- 
tion of much of this knowledge. It will be found in 
most instances to be fragmentary, chaotic and un- 
scientitic. Now, the question is whether this frag- 
mentary, unscientific knowledge of j^hysiology, hygi- 
ene, and psychology will be more helpful to the 
teacher in teaching than a systematic, scientific 
knowledge of these subjects. Every one knows some- 
thing of science, the knowledge having been picked 
up in fragments from experience, but it is not this 
kind of knowledge that has caused the progress of the 
world. The knowledge which has caused civilization 
to move forward with such strides in the present 
century has been that w4iich was systematic and 
scientific, not the fragmentary and unscientific kind. 
Thus the question we started out to study has reduced 
itself to the following: First, a teacher must have* 
some knowledge of psychology, physiology and hygi- 
ene to teach at all. Secondly, the teacher through 
experience may acquire a fragmentary, chaotic, un- 
scientific knowledge partly right and partly wrong, 
always superficial, of these subjects. Thirdly, the 
teacher may acquire through careful study a scien- 
tific knowledge of these subjects. Fourthly, scientific 
knowledge is the world over the kind most valuable for 
guidance. Surely no one is so obtuse as to claim that 



120 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

a superficial, fragmentary knowledge of psychology, 
such as everyone has, is better for guidance in teach- 
ing than a thorough systematic knowledge of the sub- 
ject. Then since a teacher must have one of the two 
kinds, common sense teaches which is the better. 
So, our study leads us to answer the question. Must 
the successful teacher know psychology':* in the affir- 
mative. He certainly must. 

What Educators Think of the Question. — There are 
two classes of quasi teachers who oppose the study of 
psychology as a part of a teacher's preparation to 
teach school. Those of the first class are the ones 
who, it seems to me, see psychology as a speculative, 
metaphysical study of those things about which no 
one can do more than speculate or conjecture — what 
goes by the name of metaphysics in contradistinction 
to psychology. This class sees nothing in the study 
of psychology but discipline, because to them there 
is no such thing as educational psychology. There 
are but few of this class, the most of them having 
died of old age. Those of the second class know little 
or no real psychology, and so oppose it, because to 
acknowledge its usefulness is to acknowledge a criti- 
cism on themselves. With this second class, the 
wish has been father to the thought. It is absolutely 
certain that his knowledge of psychology never yet 
helped that teacher who knew no psychology, to 
teach. 

The rapid strides with which pedagogical work 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 121 

has been coming into schools of every kind is evidence 
of what is being thought on this subject. Every 
normal school, private and public, every college and 
university now has its pedagogical department. And 
this state of things is very recent. Now, psychology 
is the basis upon which the whole superstructure of 
pedagogy stands. Teacher's examinations almost 
everywhere now demand a knowledge of professional 
subjects. 

TJiouf/hts of the Thinkers.— W]]lmmT. Harris says: 
"If the teacher knows nothing of psychology as a 
science, he must copy in detail the methods of others, 
and rely on his general knowledge of human nature 
derived from experience. Like all uneducated work- 
men, he may succeed after a sort by following tradi- 
tion unaided by science, but he will not develop be- 
yond a narrow degree of perfection in details. He 
will have no insight into the general relations of his 
work. He can not safely deviate from routine, nor 
venture to criticise his own work or the work of 
others. If he has learned good models, he may pass 
for a good teacher; if he has learned bad ones, he is 
unable to perceive their defects. \ Possessing no 
scientific knowledge of the mind he cannot lift him- 
self above the details of his art to the principles 
which govern them, and become himself an original 
source of directive energy. Some knowledge of the 
mind every successful teacher must have, although 



122 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

in so many cases it is unsystematic, and conse- 
quently unscientific. " 

The same author says of child-study, which is a 
kind of psychology: "Child-study in this way (by 
experimental study of children) will furnish us more 
valuable information for the conduct of our schools 
than any other fields of investigation have yet done. " 

Herbert Spencer, the greatest English philoso- 
pher, says: "Grant that the phenomena of intelli- 
gence conform to laws; grant that the evolution of 
intelligence in a child also conforms to laws; and it 
follows inevitably that education can be rightly 
guided only by a knowledge of these laws. To sup- 
pose that you can properly regulate this process of 
forming and accumulating ideas, without understand- 
ing the nature of the process, is absurd. How 
widely, then, must teaching as it is, differ from teach- 
ing as it should be; when hardly any parents, and but 
few teachers, know anything about psychology." 
'The development of children in mind and body rigor- 
ously obeys certain laws; unless these laws are in 
some degree conformed to by parents, death is inevi- 
table; unless they are in a great degree conformed to, 
there must result serious physical and mental de- 
fects; and only when they are completely cimformed 
to, can a perfect maturity be reached.' 

Prof. William James, after telling teachers not to 
expect too much from psychology, says: "But, if 
the use of psychological principles thus be negative 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 



123 



rather than positive, it does not follow that it may not 
be of great use, all the same. It certainly narrows 
the path for experiments and trials. We know in 
advance, if we are psychologists, that certain methods 
will be wrong, so our psychology saves from mis- 
takes. It makes us, moreover, more clear as to what 
we are about. We gain confidence in respect to any 
method which we are using as soon as we believe that 
it has theory as well as practice at its back. Most of 
all, it fructifies our independence, and it reanimates 
our interest, to see our subject at two different 
angles,— to get a stereoscopic view, so to speak, of the 
youthful organism who is our enemy, and, whUe 
handhng him with all our concrete tact and divina- 
tion, to be able, at the same time, to represent to our- 
selves the curious inner elements of his mental 
machine. Such a complete knowledge as this of the 
pupil, at once intuitive and analytic, is surely the 
knowledge at which every teacher ought to aim." 

Without multiplying quotations, let it be sufd- 
cient to say there is scarcely an educator of note or 
reputation among civilized peoples who does not 
speak in the same general way on this subject. A 
knowledge of psychology is absolutely no guarantee 
of a good teacher, but it is certainly as true that no 
one can be a highly successful teacher without a 
knowledge of psychology. 
^Purpose of Education.— The nature of the purpose 
of education has been studied before, but it remains 



124 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

to study why the teacher should have as nearly cor- 
rect views as possible of the things to be accom- 
plished by the educating process. Since the purpose 
of education is one with the purpose of life, the ques- 
tion to be studied is the importance of the correct 
view of the purpose of living. 

One may possibly wear his religion on Sundays, 
and put it off on week days. But his view of the 
object to be accomplished by education will show 
itself in all he does. Every act in the school-room 
will be affected by it. If he has wrong views of the 
object of the educating process, every assignment 
will be tinged by it; every recitation will be colored 
thereby; every correction or direction will be steeped 
in these false ideas. If he has the right ideas of life 
and education they will manifest themselves in all his 
school work. If he has no definite ideas of education 
and life, his work will be purposeless, scattering, dis- 
organized and fragmentary. A clear, fervent pur- 
pose will draw the teacher's work toward its accom- 
plishment as surely as the magnet attracts the parti- 
cles of steel. It can not be made too strong that 
every teacher should have the true purpose of educa- 
tion so well fixed in his life that it may become, in 
truth, a part of him. 

\ Knoioledge of Methods. — The term nietliod is em- 
ployed in two senses by educators. Popularly, it 
means the manipulation of means external to the life 
of the child in the i3r()cess of teaching. Scientifically, 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 125 

it means the activities of the student's mind in the 
process of learning. In either sense the teacher 
must know method. For to know method in the first 
sense is to know w4iat means to use in teaching, and 
how" to use them, and to know method in the second 
sense is to know the mental steps the student's mind 
takes in learning any point of knowledge. 

It has been held by some that if the teacher 
knows his subject w^ell he can teach it well. This, 
however, is not true. Nothing is commoner in teach- 
ing than persons who know their subjects well, but 
wiio teach poorly. Dr. Groszman says on this point: 
"The professional training of teachers is not gener- 
ally high. Many people still entertain the idea that 
to know a subject is a guarantee of the ability to 
teach it. Nor is it easy to demonstrate the fallacy of 
this notion to those w4io are ignorant of the laws that 
govern the wa^rkings of the human mind. " 

A little thought will show that to know, first, the 
means to be used; secondly, how" to use them; and 
thirdly, the activities of the child 's mind in the pro- 
cess of learning any subject is of equal importance in 
successful teaching with knowing well the subject. 
This point wiU receive a full study in chapter nine. 
/. Practice in the Art of Teaching. — One becomes 
skillful in doing anything by practice only. Thus 
(me becomes skillful in Meriting by practice in writ- 
ing; skillful in riding a bicycle by riding; skillful in 
ball-playing by playing ball, This is a principle that 



126 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

holds true in the acquirement of any art. And since 
teaching is an art the principle applies to it. So a 
teacher to become skillful must have practice in the 
art of teaching. This joractice may be obtained in 
two ways. First, by teaching as a student-teacher 
under the direction of a skillful training-teacher in 
what are knowm as training schools. Secondly, by 
teaching in one's own school without having had any 
practice before, and thus acquiring the skill by ex- 
perience without direction by a training-teacher. It 
is evident that learning to teach by the latter w^ay is 
pretty hard on the pupils which the teacher practices 
upon. It is too much a matter of experiment, and is 
very like a physician's learning to practice medicine 
by experimenting upon his patient. But everywhere 
the innocent little children in our schools are the 
victims of such experimenting. If it is a deplorable 
set of conditions that compels persons to teach who 
have merely enough knowledge of the subjects to 
secure license, it is certainly not a less deplorable set 
of conditions that compels teachers to experiment 
thus with the innocent lives of our children. 

^' Knerfieiic Student Habits. — The living teacher must 
be a constant worker. He wiU ever keep before him 
a higher degree of excellence in all lines of work 
toward which he will constantly strive. A teacher 
never reaches a place in his school work where he can 
safely rest on the oars and drift. There is absolutely 
no way to have a thorough, fresh knowledge of the 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 127 

subject taught; to keep in mind the best educational 
methods and other ideals than by constant industri- 
ous student habits. Everything that lives pro- 
gresses, and nothing progresses more rapidly than 
the science and art of education. One as a teacher 
simply can not rely upon his past preparation to 
guide him safely and successfully through in teach- 
ing. He must keep up with the educational progress 
or he win bean "old fogy" and a "fossil" sooner 
than he is aware. The educational w^orld demands 
thoughtful, progressive teachers. "To reach the 
port of heaven, w^e must sail sometimes with the wind 
and sometimes against it, — but we must sail, and not 
drift, nor lie at anchor. " 

Dr. Groszman says on this point: "Not every 
scholar is necessarily a teacher, but every teacher 
must be a scholar. By the latter I mean he must 
possess the scientific spirit— that spirit which is con- 
cerned not alone in the accumulation of a vast number 
of facts, but also, and mainly, in the inteUigent use of 
those at hand. He must, on his own account, aspire 
to knowledge such as will expand his own personality 
and widen the horizon of his interests, in order that 
he may be able to personate, to his pupils, if only in a 
modest way, the incorruptible dignity and the salu- 
tary influence of true science. If the teacher's 
interests be confined to the four wahs of his school- 
room, he runs the risk of becoming narrow, and self- 
complacent, petty and nagging. He must be con- 



12H STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

versant with the great problems of his age, so that he 
may keep steadily before him the great aim of all 
educational effort. " 

Dailij Preparation. — No teacher ever knows a sub- 
ject so weU as to be able to teacli it to the best advant- 
age without making daily preparation. This is true 
because no lesson is ever taught at any two times 
under the same set of circumstances. Students to 
whom the lessons are to be taught will vary in 
capacity and other particulars. So each lesson must 
be prepared with the view of teaching it to the 
particular class one has, if the very best teaching is 
to be done. A teacher who teaches without daily 
]>re])aration shows staleness in his work; his teaching 
lacking all that freshness, vigor, and interest born of 
seeing something new in the subject. This is true, 
because going over the same thing again and again 
without seeing anything new of necessity grows 
m(mot(mous and uninteresting, while on the other 
hand no cme ever knows a subject so well but that he 
can see something new in it by his study in daily 
preparation. Again, for most teachers it is the only 
remedy for avoiding the evils that flow from a meager 
laiowledge of the subjects. The teacher who will 
succeed best will be the <me who will "get out" his 
lessons daily. This he expects of his students, and 
this his students have a right to expect of him. 

Love of Occupation. — Every one knows with how 
much more zest work which one likes to do is done 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 129 

than work which one does not hke to do. Too many- 
teachers make school teaching a stepping-stone to 
some other kind of work and so never really prepare 
themselves for teaching. Not being in love with 
teaching is doubtless largely the cause of this. Dr. 
Groszman says: "Teaching has become a profession 
with only a very few. The teachers found employed 
in many of our schools are either young men, who 
use the position in a public school as a stepping-stone 
to 'something better,' or young girls, who desire to 
till the interval between their school-days and married 
life, with some sort of respectable occupation. ' ' No 
teacher who does not like to teach school can show so 
much interest, enthusiasm, aggressiveness and pro- 
gressiveness in his work as he would if he loved the 
work. Love for the work will lighten the labor, will 
put the spirit of life in it. Otherwise teaching be- 
comes the veriest drudgery, a thing to be endured 
only. 

Sympathy. — The ability of the teacher to rejoice 
with his students in their joys and triumphs, to 
grieve with them in their griefs, in short, to be in 
sympathetic touch with their lives is the characteris- 
tic above all others that influences children's lives. 
Such a teacher is one of heart power — the one who 
can love the erring and wayward. In teaching, sym- 
pathy covereth a multitude of sins. 

It is unfortunate for the children that circum- 
stances are such that our teachers largely teach 



130 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

school at a period of life when they have the least 
sympathy for children. Prom the age of sixteen to 
the age of thirty is the period in life in which young 
women and young men have the least sympathy for 
children. This is the period in which young men and 
young women are most interested in themselves and 
in each other. Before sixteen and after about thirty 
they have more sympathy for child life. But this is 
the period in which most men and women teach 
school. 

Sympathy for child life is idealized in the follow- 
ing, attributed to Dickens: 

They are idols of hearts and of households, 
They are angels of God in disguise; 
His sunshine still sleeps in their tresses. 
His glory still beams in their eyes. 

Those shouts of home and of heaven 
Have made me more manly and mild, 
And I now know how Jesus could liken 
The Kingdom of God to a child. 

My heart grows as tender as woman's, 
And the fountains of feeling will flow, 
When I think of the paths steep and stony 
Where the feet of these dear ones must go. 

(), the mountains of sin that o'er hang them I 
O, the tempests of fate blowing wild ! 
But I know there's nothing on earth so holy 
As the innocent heart of a child. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 131 

Desirable Characteristics, Though Not Absolutely 
Necessary.— 'There are several characteristics that 
greatly facilitate a teacher's success, but which not 
all teachers can possess, and without which success 
in teaching may still be attained. A few of the most 
important of these wiU be mentioned and briefly 
studied. The following may be noted: 1. Good 
health. 2. Natural aptitude. 3. Personal magnet- 
ism. 4. Mastery of circumstances. 

Good Health.— The relation between the mind and 
body is so close that whatever in any way militates 
against efficiency of bodily functions affects the mind. 
Dispositions and temperaments are direct out- 
growths of bodily conditions. To do one's best work 
of any kind requires a healthful, \igorous, vivacious 
condition of the nervous system and muscular 
system. Aggressive, vigorous, efficient work are the 
accompaniment of health. Ill health induces weak- 
ness of effort, irritabihty of mind, despondent and 
depressed states of spirit, discouragement and 
dreariness fatal to aU successful teaching and school 
government. Ill health makes aU work drudgery, 
amusement a bore, and life a misery and a faUure. 
The longer one lives the more fully he appreciates 
this fact. Then one of the highest duties towards his 
school is for the teacher to make all reasonable ex- 
ertions to keep his health at high water mark. 

Natural Aptitude.— No doubt there are persons 
who are to some extent natural teachers; that is, are 



IHl! STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

naturally adapted to teaching, while others have no 
ability in this line. There are persons who naturally 
show an aptitude in music, while others can never 
reach any marked degree of proficiency in music. 
The same is true of teachers without doubt. This is 
a desirable characteristic, and one that must be 
possessed by every teacher to some extent, but one 
which not all, not even a majority of teachers, greatly 
possess. It is probably true that most persons can 
become successful teachers with due preparation. 
However, it is just as true that there are some who 
when they attempt to teach have entirely "missed 
their calling. " There are some whose native ability 
for teaching is such that they will never succeed at 
this work. Such people, who may be most excellent 
men and women, may succeed well at some other 
line of work. Froobel and Pestalozzi succeeded well 
at nothing else but teaching. 

Personal Magnetism. — This is an endowment im- 
portant and real, but perhaps beyond the control of 
many. It "neither faUs from the sky nor springs 
from the ground. " However, it is the endowment 
which makes friends for the teacher both in school 
and out, and is not as some suppose, altogether a 
natural endowment. Some of the elements that go 
to make it up are, pleasant greeting, general friendli- 
ness, sympathy, charity, frankness, and a pleasant 
voice. It is worthy of note that several of these 
elements may be acquired by cultivation, 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 133 

Mastery of Circumstances. — By this is meant a 
marked ability to know what to do next under any set 
of circumstances. There are persons who nev^er 
know what to do next under any set of circumstances 
except the most usual, while again there are persons 
who always seem to know what to do in any set of 
circumstances. Now the teacher has much need of 
belonging to the latter class, for a school is a place 
famous for the uprising of unusual circumstances. 
A teacher must possess the ability to meet the occa- 
sion to some extent, otherwise he could not get along 
for a day. But perhaps not all can possess this en- 
dowment to the extent desired. 

Illustration. — A student upon an occasion of 
failure in recitation in a class, insisted he had no 
right to believe anything he could not see. Various 
iUustrations were given by the teacher to show the 
position taken by the student was not only untenable 
but unreasonable. The student would not see his 
error. The teacher mildly and pleasantly asked the 
student if he believed he had a brain. A smile went 
around the class and the student took his seat with- 
out a word. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MANAGEMENT OP THE SCHCX)L. 

Importance of. — There is no subject that enhsts 
the intellect or appeals to the emotions of the teacher, 
of more far-reaching importance than this one of 
school government. Upon the successful solution of 
the question, How best manage a school? depends the 
efficiency of all the school processes. The teacher 
who fails in school government fails in all, because 
the other school work bears such a relation to school 
discipline that they can not be separated. To the 
beginning teacher it is the most vital school question. 
It is the rock upon which more teachers have been 
shipwrecked in their careers than upon any other. 
It has caused more sleepless nights, more shattered 
nervous systems, more hot, scalding tears than any 
other school problem. 

The School an Orcianization, or Organism. — In our 
study of the nature of the school in the first chapter 
of our pedagogy work, it will be remembered we 
found that the school is an organization, and that the 
ideas that enter into an organization, according to the 
best use of the term, are: 

1. It is a complex whole. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 135 

2. This whole is made up of individual parts. 

3. These parts have a harmonious working rela- 
tion. 

4. These parts work for one common end. 

5. The whole is self-acting and self-adjusting. 
Thus the school is made up of pupil, teacher, subject- 
matter, school ofticers, etc., all constituting a complex 
whole, the individual parts being patrons, school 
officers, children, teacher, etc., these all work to- 
gether in such a way as not to produce friction, and 
as to economize energy to the greatest degree. This 
is what is meant by a harmonious working relation. 
The education of the pupil is the common end for 
which all these parts work. The school as a whole 
acts, — originates its program, classes, recitations, 
sets up ideals and strives to attain them; it, also, 
when it gets out of order proceeds to adjust its own 
difficulties. Thus the school is self-acting and self- 
adjusting. 

The Fundamental Law. — Wlien in our study we 
try to find the thing underlying all the complex 
activities of the school to which they can conform in 
order to contribute to the highest success of the 
school, we find it to be unity. Thus our study leads 
us to decide that the fundamental law of the school is 
the laic of unity. By unity is meant that any act of 
any of the elements of the school furthers any other 
act of the same element or of a different element 
toward the accomplishment of the common end of the 



136 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

school. It is evident that this is the thing that will 
contribute to the success of the school always. And 
it is equally evident that if one element of the school 
so acts that his activity antagonizes the acts of 
another element, or other acts of his own that it 
works against the success of the school, — it breaks 
the law of unity. From the study so far we get the 
hint that the problem involved in school management 
is tlie maintenance of the law of unittj. The law of 
unity is the law of any organism, and since the school 
is an organism, it is the law of the school. 

Source of the Laiv. — The laws of any organism are 
inherent in the organism and are not externally im- 
posed. The law that determines that the plumule, 
the growing point of the stem of a plant, grows up 
toward sunlight and air, and the law that determines 
that the radix grows down from the sunlight and air 
are in the very nature and condition of the plant. No 
externally imposed conditions can change these laws. 
The botanist can discover these and many other laws 
of plant life, but he can make no laws for the plant. 
No one can legislate for the plant. Legislatures and 
parliaments might pass a law that hereafter plants 
should grow, blossom and produce fruit without 
moisture, sunshine and heat, and all nations of the 
earth might ratify this law, but the plants would go 
on in their own seeming stubborn way, and demand 
for their growth, heat, light and moisture. 

The law of the school is as much a part of the 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 137 

nature of the school as the laws of plant life are of the 
nature of the plant. 

Rules. — The various phases of the law of unity are 
rightly the rules of the school. Some writers have 
attempted to make a distinction between the laws of 
the school and the rules of the school. It has been 
held that a rule of the school is an externally imposed 
regulation made by the teacher or some other person, 
— director, trustee, or superintendent, and that a law 
of the school is some truth inherent in the nature of 
the school according to which the various elements 
act. This is a bad distinction to make, because it is 
a source of mischief. The right meaning of rule is 
that it is a minor law. Thus the various phases of 
the law of unity are the rules of the school. This 
idea of the law and rules of the school can not be too 
thoroughly fixed in the lives of the pupils and 
teachers. 

Phases of the Lmv. — An analysis of the law of 
unity in the school reveals various ways in which 
unity is to be sought, the most prominent of which 
are the following: 1. Unity in the organism as a 
whole. 2. Unity between teacher and puj)il. 3. 
Unity between the pupil's ideal self and his real self. 
Each of these will be studied to some extent. Before 
taking up this study it is worth while to notice that 
this is only a very general analysis. A close analysis 
would reveal almost an endless number of phases of 
the law of unity. For instance, there must be unity 



138 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

between patrons and teacher; between patrons and 
children; among school officers; between the school 
officers and teacher, and between school officers and 
children. Each one of these unities might in turn 
be further analyzed. 

Unity in the Organism as a JVJiole. — There is unity 
in the organism as a whole when every element of it 
is so acting that each act furthers the influence of any 
other activity of any element toward the accomplish- 
ment of the common end — the education of the child. 
This thought of what unity in the school as a whole 
consists of is of the highest importance to every con- 
scious element of the school. If this thought can be 
so firmly fixed in the minds of each person, — teacher, 
students, school officers, patrons, etc., — connected 
with the school that it will become a part of his life, 
the problem of school government will be substanti- 
ally solved. An appreciation of the law of unity in 
the organism as a whole will reveal to teacher, 
student, patron, and school officer that it is not 
students alone who violate the rules of school, but 
almost as often the teacher, the patron or school 
board. Our legislators often make what are called 
"School Laws" that violate the laws of the school, 
break the unity, and militate against the integrity 
and efficiency of school work. It is evident that 
there is a distinction between the law of the school 
and what often goes into the statutes as the "School 
Laws." 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 139 

When a school board secures a teacher to teach 
school for any other reason than because of the abil- 
ity of that teacher to do good teaching, its members 
break the law of the school. It is a pernicious 
doctrine worthy of condemnation in the strongest 
possible terms by all sensible and honest people, that 
teachers should be chosen from any other considera- 
tion than their ability to minister to the lives of their 
pupils. Poverty, nepotism, machine politics, church 
influences, and so on, of themselves have absolutely 
no place in the considerations when a teacher is to be 
chosen. A school board will hire a teacher year after 
year wholly incompetent and unfit for a teacher, be- 
cause she is poor and has an invalid mother; they will 
not hire competent and proficient married ladies to 
teach because perchance a married lady who teaches 
will support a wortliless husband. Such school 
boards are the worst enemies of the children of our 
schools. There is no economy, no honesty or com- 
mon sense in injuring the lives of a room full of 
children, thirty or forty, year after year, in order to 
furnish a place for an incompetent teacher. One gets 
heart- sick at the incompetency, dishonesty, or imbe- 
cility of a school board that will take into considera- 
tion the many things brought to bear to secure places 
for incompetent teachers even at the disregard of the 
influence on the growing lives of the school children. 
The doctrine that sets anything above the welfare of 
the pupils in the choice of teachers is wholly inde- 



140 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

fensible. This is doubtless the greatest evil of the 
American schools today, and the one most far-reach- 
ing in influence, pernicious alike to children and to 
teachers. Thus is the law of the school broken by 
school boards to their everlasting dishonor and dis- 
grace. 

The Poiver of Sentinienf. — By sentiment is meant 
a feeling for or against anything because of knowl- 
edge concerning that thing. Sentiment is a power- 
ful factor in school government. If there is some 
line of conduct which breaks the law of unity in the 
school the most potent means of controlling it is to 
establish a sentiment against it in the school. One 
has only to look about him to see that life is largely 
controlled by sentiment. A certain church com- 
munity has a sentiment against an organ in church, 
and a pastor comes and lauds the advantages of the 
church organ. One can easily judge the standing of 
that pastor in that community. The same sermon 
might be preached in another community with the 
most satisfactory results. In a town now in mind 
every one plays at cards, and any new-comer who re- 
fuses to play is regarded as unsociable and ridiculous. 
The best church people in this town do not object to 
cards, so to play at cards in this town has no bad 
effect on one's reputation. In another town now in 
mind, to play at cards is placed in the category of 
heinous crimes, so to play at cards here would ruin 
one's reputation and destroy his usefulness in this 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 141 

community. What is tlie difference in the two 
places? The answer is a difference in sentiment. 

The Main Line of ScJwof Government. — The main 
work the teacher has to do then in school government 
is to establish a strong sentiment as to the following: 
1. That the law of the school is inherent in the school 
because of the pupil's part in the organization. 2. 
That the pupU as much as the teacher helps to make 
the rules of the school. 3. That the teacher, patron, 
or school officer may break a rule of the school as 
well as the pupil. 4. That the pupil himself helps to 
keep the law of the school intact as weU as the 
teacher. 5. That the ultimate object of the school is 
the highest welfare of the student. If we as teachers 
can establish a strong sentiment for that which we 
want in school and against that which we do not want 
in school the problem of government will then largely 
take care of itself. Arnold Tompkins says on this 
point: "The main line of work running through the 
management of a school is that of developing in the 
thought of the pupil the laws which are in the school 
because of his membership in it. This does not re- 
quire a logical exposition of the theory of the school, 
but the laws are tf) be made to appear through the 
c(mcrete situations of school life. Consultation, 
formal and informal, on special interests and phases 
of conduct, is the effective means, ev^en with a class 
of youngest students. The mere compliment of 
recognition forestalls opposition and outbreak. But 



142 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

the best results are not the mere matter of order, 
but the ethical value to the student: he becomes a 
student of conduct; he is finding the law of conduct 
in particular cases, and gradually, as he is able, 
generalizes them into the law of school conduct: and 
through this the laws of conduct at large will be re- 
vealed to him. And more, it is not merely a percep- 
tion of law, but there is an habitual practice under 
the law; not merely his expanding theory of ethical 
conduct, but his expanding free and virtuous life 
under that theory. He is immediately and directly 
involved in every case; and it becomes a question of 
his own practice, and not a scheme to apply to others. 
No amount of moral teaching in school can be as 
effective as a rational practice of school management. 
By it the school is not only made more real and 
secure, and the immediate C(mdition for instructi(m 
provided, but the pupil is thereby brought to the 
habit of rational self-control, the end of all ends in 
school work. ' ' 

Behavior or Conduct. — Behavior in school is often- 
times thought of as merely applying to the student, 
but a true view shows that conduct with reference to 
the school involves the actions of the teacher, pupil, 
patron or school officer. And conduct in school is 
one's bearing toward the unity in the school. Good 
behavior is that which maintains or tends to maintain 
the unity in the school, while bad conduct or bad be- 
havior is that which breaks down, or tends to break 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY, 143 

down the unity of the school. That which is good 
behavior in school is right and that which is bad be- 
havior in school is wrong. 

Dr. Arnold Tompkins says on the point: "Be- 
havior or conduct in school, whether on the part of 
the teacher, parent, pupil, or school officer, is the 
way one bears himself in reference to this vital touch 
of mind with mind in the act of instruction. A right 
act in school is one which secures, or tends to secure, 
unity between the mind of the teacher and the pupil 
in the teaching process, while a wrong act is one 
which destroys, or tends to destroy, such unity. 
School management is the process by which all the 
acts of all the agents constituting the organism are 
brought into the unity of the one act above de- 
scribed. ' ' 

Unity Betiveen Teacher and Learner. — It is in this 
unity that the life of the pupil comes in vital touch 
with the life of the teacher in the teaching act. Mr. 
Tompkins says on this point: "These two (teacher and 
pupil) in cooperative unity constitute a school, and 
the law is to be tested in their organic unity. All 
other parts of the organism work their way down to 
this unity through these two factors. The prolonged 
and heroic eifort States have made in organizing a 
school fund is to bring teacher and pupil together 
under the most favorable conditions for cooperation. 
The Commissioner of Education must find his way 
through the long line of forces down to the touch of 



144 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

teacher with pupil. Library, laboratory, and gym- 
nasium are but unifying agencies between teacher 
and pupil; and the value of thumb-bell or clock, eraser 
or wall map, is tested by the influence exerted on the 
unity of teacher with pupil. Thus the school is quite 
a complex, but closely integrated, process. Every 
act performed, however remote, finds its way to the 
unity described, and is there tested. Wlien the di- 
rector fails to supply good fuel, or the trustee a good 
blackboard the unity is weakened. When the county 
superintendent gives license to a teacher, or the 
trustee selects one, the value of the act will be tested 
in the unity of teacher and pupil in the teaching act. 
The State Superintendent renders a decision, and it 
ultimately shows itself in the ccmcrete teaching pro- 
cess, — in the unity of mind with mind in the teaching 
act." It thus appears that everything in the com- 
plex organization of the school exists for the purpose 
of bringing about the unity between the mind of the 
teacher and the pupil. This unity shows itself in 
two ways: 1. At all times both in and out of the 
recitation the teacher and student, if their minds are 
in unity, endeavor to conform themselves to the 
highest welfare of the school as a whole. 2. In the 
recitation particularly the mind of the student and 
teacher meet in vital unity. Anything which breaks 
this unity breaks a vital rule of the school. Hence 
the wrong in whispering or talking in the class when 
the work of the recitation is progressing. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 145 

Unity Between the Learner's Real and Ideal Self. — 
There is unity between the pupil's real and ideal self 
when each act of his life lifts him from a lower to a 
higher plane of living; when through his action the / 
am becomes constantly what was the / ought just 
before that act. From this it appears that constant, 
perfect unity between the real and the ideal selves of 
the pupils can never be more than approximated, for 
to attain to such a unity constantly would be an ideal 
growth toward freedom. To make the pupil con- 
scious that every act of his life leaves a permanent 
eif ect and inti uence on his life, and that every act that 
brings about the unity between his real and ideal self 
influences him for good, and that every act that 
breaks this unity, or tends to break it affects him for 
the worse, is to make him conscious of the nature of 
the disturbing struggle in life. It is the most com- 
prehensive problem of human life, the problem broad 
enough to include every phase of human life. Wlien 
the child sees the nature of this problem he is natur- 
ally unwilling to do those things which will degrade 
him, but aspires to a higher life constantly. Thus in 
preserving the unity between the student's real and 
ideal self, the school is fixing the habit with him of 
right living under any circumstances. And this, — to 
give the student the habit of self-control and right 
self-direction, is the ultimate end of all school govern- 
ment. 

VnifyiiKj Conditions, — Unity in its various phases 



140 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

is the proximate as well as the ultimate end to be 
sought in all school government, but this unity can 
not be obtained directly. It is to be brought about 
by producing conditions for unity. So our study 
brings us to the consideration of unifying conditions. 
The unifying conditions may be analyzed into several 
phases, but only the following important phases will 
be studied: 1. Unifying conditions in the organism 
as a whole. 2. Unifying conditions of teacher and 
pupil. 3. Conditions of unity between the pupil's 
real and ideal self. 

Unifying Condition.s in the Organism as a Whole. — 
Unity in the organism as a whole as before defined 
means that all of the elements of the school are so 
acting that each act furthers the influence of any 
other activity of any element toward the accomplish- 
ment of the common object, — the education of the 
child. Now, what is the condition in the school that 
pre-eminently brings about this unity? The answer 
to this question is that if the whole complex organiza- 
tion is permeated through and through with the 
thought that the school is what it is because of the 
part the child has in it, and that the interest of the 
child stands paramount to aU other interests, this is 
the condition above all others for unity in the organ- 
ism as a whole. This thought estimates every act of 
every element of the school in terms of its ministry 
to the welfare of the pupil. This means the best is 
none too good for the child. The best teacher, the 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 147 

best school house, the best books, the best school 
board, the best superintendent, and the best appara- 
tus which can under the circumstances be secured 
are due to the interests of the child. And any school 
officer, teacher, or superintendent who purposely, or 
through neglect, does less than exert himself to se- 
cure those conditions is not loyal to the charge en- 
trusted to him. 

Conditions of Unity Betiveen Teacher' and Pupils. — 
One of the most important conditions for bringing 
about the unity between teacher and pupil is the 
school-room. Here is the place where outward form 
of unity is maintained. It is the place where stu- 
dents come together for the work of the school, and 
may be made a positive influence for securing unity. 
Mr. Tompkins says on this point: "It must be more 
than a secure, quiet, and comfortable meeting-place 
for teacher and pupil; it must have a positively elevat- 
ing influence, bringing the pupil, by its active toning 
power, into the higher life and mood of unity with the 
teacher. The pupil comes at once under the com- 
bined influence of the presence of the teacher and the 
more indefinable presence of the school-room. 

The school-room must be homelike and cheerful, 
pleasing and attractive. It should not be bare, hard 
and repulsive, but filled with sunshine and delight, 
which makes it more attractive and cheering than the 
home of the average child. This does not require up- 
holstered furniture and elaborate decorations. Clean 



148 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

walls, with here and there a well-chosen picture, 
which can speak to the heart and the mind of the 
child; neat window curtains; a few flowers; some 
carpeting, — the more the better; and whatever little 
matters good taste would suggest." The general 
tone of the school-room as a whole has much to do 
with inducing that attitude of mind favorable to the 
unity of teacher and pupil. 

The analysis of the purpose of the school-room as 
a unifying condition between the teacher and pupils 
shows the following: 1. To bring about the personal 
contact of teacher and pupU. 2. To bring about com- 
municable relations between teacher and pupil. 3. 
To make the puj^il and teacher comfortable. 4. To 
minimize diverting influences. These four points will 
be studied briefly in their turn. 

Personal Contact. — In the school-room in general 
and in the recitation in particular the teacher and 
pupil come into personal contact. It is necessary 
that pupil and teacher work in the same atmosphere. 
No good teaching can be done except in the presence 
of the student. An attempt is sometimes made to 
teach by correspondence, but such teaching lacks the 
life, flexibility and power that come from the per- 
sonal ccmtact of pupil and teacher. In the presence 
of the student the teacher can ada|it his teaching to 
the moods, attitudes of mind and special difficulties 
of the indi\idual pupils. Thus only in personal con- 
tact with students can the teacher lead the student 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 149 

to think the thoughts, experience the feehng, and 
will as he should. Too large schools or too large 
classes \iolate the law of unity by militating against 
the personal contact of teacher and student. 

Communicable Relations. — Nothing is more impor- 
tant in teaching than to have the pupils in easy com- 
municable relations. The minds of pupils can not 
keep in touch with the mind of the teacher in the 
teaching act unless the pupils can without difficulty 
see and hear the teacher. If the students must 
crane their necks to see the teacher's face and 
gestures, and strain to hear his words, it is safe to 
say unity wiU not last long under such conditions. 
Students will naturally make a few spasmodic eiforts 
under such circumstances to maintain the unity be- 
tween themselves and the teacher, but the tension 
being too great, will soon settle down, the unity 
broken, to await the end of the recitation. Communi- 
cable relations demand that the school-room be not 
too long, nor too broad. Students can not hear the 
teacher well more than thirty feet, and can not see 
the teacher well from the sides if the width of the 
room is more than twenty -four feet. All school 
authorities are in agreement on these dimensions for 
a school-room. So from the law of unity in school 
management as weU as from a hygienic stand-point, 
no school-room should be larger than thirty-three by 
twenty-four feet. 

Comfort of Teacher and PnpilH. — Much of the noise 



150 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY, 

and friction in school arises because the pupils are 
uncomfortable. No student can be expected to work 
quietly who is uncomfortable to any great extent. 
Wliile the school-house is to provide for the comfort 
of pupils and teachers, many of them certainly fail in 
this to a remarkable degree. When students and 
teacher are uncomfortable the unity of teacher and 
pupil is broken in that the attention is drawn to the 
bodily discomfort. No teacher or student can do 
good work under conditions of bodily discomfort. 
There are, at any rate, four things connected with the 
school-room which will contribute to comfort: 1. 
Comfortable seats. 2. Proper temperature. 3. Ven- 
tilation. 4. Lighting. Not only from hygienic 
reasons but from reasons of school government 
should the seats be of proper pattern, and well 
adapted to the age and size of the pupils who use 
them. 

Every school-room should have a thermometer 
hung about four feet from the floor in some part of 
the room where the air would be at an average tem- 
perature with that in the room as a whole, and the 
mercury should be kept as nearly as possible at from 
70° to 72°. The temperature below this, some one 
will be uncomfortable from cold; and the temperature 
above this, some one will be uncomfortable with heat. 

Plenty of pure, fresh air admitted to the school- 
room in such a way that no one, teacher or pupil, will 
be subjected to draughts is certainly essential to 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 151 

comfort, and since essential to comfort, it becomes a 
question of school management as weU as a question 
of school hygiene. One point here needs to be re- 
iterated, and that is, that air may become unfit to 
breathe and at the same time be cold. That the 
temperature of a room is 70° or below is no guarantee 
that the air in that room is pure enough to breathe. 
This is a truth that many janitors seem incapable of 
learning. 

Bad lighting likewise induces bodily discomfort, 
and so breaks up the unity. Plenty of light should 
be admitted from the left and from behind the pupils, 
and in order that a school-room should be well lighted 
according to approved methods it should not be more 
than twenty-four feet wide. The study of the ques- 
tions of seating, heating, ventilating, and lighting 
school-rooms has usually been discussed from the 
hygienic stand point, but they deserve consideration 
also from the \aew-point of school management. 

Minimizing Diverting Influences. — Whatever re- 
moves influences that take the pupil's attention from 
his school work is a condition of unity. Some school- 
rooms are so situated that all sorts of sights and 
sounds are constantly attracting the attention of the 
pupils. The writer has taught in a recitation room 
near a railroad upon which as many as four or five 
heavily loaded trains w^ould pass during one recita- 
tion period. Just so many times was unity of recita- 
tion broken. Again, a school-room situated near a 



152 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY, 

paved street will often have the unity between the 
teacher and pupils broken by the rattling of vehicles 
upon the street. These points are worth considering 
in choosing a location for school buildings. It is up- 
on the school premises and within the school-room 
itself that distracting influences may be minimized in 
particular. These influences are those that divert 
through: 1. Touch. 2. Sight. 3. Hearing. 

Touch. — Minimizing influences which divert 
through touch demands that all pencils, knives, un- 
necessary books, apples, pencil-cases, etc., except 
those in actual use, should be removed from desks. 
If such things are left on the desk, students can 
scarcely refrain from handling them. It is also in 
the light of this thought that the superiority of single 
seats over double seats becomes so evident. 

Skiht. — It is imperative that all unnecessary 
sights be removed from the school-room. Hence the 
law against students passing from one part of the 
room to another; to the water bucket; to and from the 
stove; against any unusual arrangement of school 
furniture. 

Hearing. — The law against distracting influences 
through hearing demands quiet in the school-room. 
This is such an important point in school manage- 
ment that especial study needs to be given it. From 
a mistaken idea that to demand quiet in the school- 
room is to rob children of their freedom, some 
teachers not only permit but advocate an intolerable 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 153 

amount of noise in their schools. Mr. Tompkins says 
on this point: " Most effective of all means of divert- 
ing the attention is noise. Silence must be the law of 
the school-room. The noise of whispering, studying, 
fixing fires, walking, loud talk of teacher, etc., must 
be gotten rid of. It is quite common for the teacher 
to make more noise than all the pupils together. A 
teacher should speak in subdued tones, and move 
about too quietly to attract notice. He should so 
address a class during recitation that the pupils 
studying are not compelled to listen. Pencils should 
be sharpened at recess; and slate frames covered, or 
slates abolished for note-books. 

I know it has been often urged that a noisy 
school-room is a sign of energy and activity, of in- 
dustry and hard work; that the working bee-hive must 
hum. This sounds very well till we reflect that it is 
physical energy and activity that makes the noise; 
there is no mental analogy. Rather it is the reverse; 
the greater the mental activity the greater the 
silence. The boy who thinks is not necessarily noisy, 
but necessarily silent. All professional students 
seek a silent retreat as the best condition for mental 
labor. This doctrine of a noisy school arises from 
two classes of teachers, — those who can not secure 
silence, and seek an escape through the theory; and 
those who champion in good faith the plea for free- 
dom on the part of the pupil, — or, as it seems to 
some, a plea for license." 



154 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Conditions of Unity Between the PupiCs Real and 
Ideal Self. — It may be reiterated that there is unity 
between the pupil's real and ideal self when each act 
he puts forth helps to fix in liim habits of truth and 
righteousness. This attained would be ideal growth 
toward freedom. The highest aim of the school is to 
induce actions in the pupil that will constantly uplift 
him, and give him the ability to inhibit those which 
would degrade him, to the end that the growth 
brought about by these activities may crystallize into 
character whose elements are scrupulous honesty 
and integrity, truthfulness, politeness, and justice. 
But this sums itself up in unity between the pupil's 
ideal and real self. The conditions of this unity are 
at any rate three, — 1. Pure motives. 2. Incentives. 
3. Social influences. 

Pure Motives. — The pupil must have right ideas of 
life, otherwise he can not attain to right living. If 
the pupil can be made to feel strongly that, when all 
is considered, there is but cme thing in life worth 
striving for, namely, a high type of manhood or 
womanhood, the most essential condition of unity 
between the student's real and ideal self exists. 
Wliat an opportunity here for the teacher who is 
what his students ought to become, to help students 
start right in life I The teacher must have thought 
(mt what life's success consists in, it is true, before 
he can inspire his students to hunger and thirst after 
truth and righteousness. Right ideas of life and 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 155 

conduct is the great condition of unity between the 
student's I am and / ought. 

Incentives. — Incentives are stimuh to urge to 
activity. They are usually some condition of the self 
which does not actually exist, but thought to be de- 
sirable, and which is held up before the pupil's mind 
to induce him to perform his tasks. As such, are 
class grades, per cents, prizes, etc. Incentives 
readily di\ide themselves into two classes, — natural 
and artificial. 

Natural Incentives. — These are those effects that 
in the nature of things result from the performance 
of worthy deeds. That is to say, natural incentives 
are the conditions which naturally result from the 
good deed. The great natural incentive is the soul's 
inherent desire of progress. The soul awakes to 
conscious life with the desire of progress as its in- 
most and strongest trait. The soul's passion for 
knowledge and righteousness, its desire of develop- 
ment is man's distinctive mark. 

"Progress, man's distinctive mark alone, 

Not God's, and not the beasts'; God is, they are, 

Man partly is, and wholly hopes to be." 

This characteristic of the mind in psychology is 
caUed wonder. Thus wonder, the natural incentive 
to progress, is the mind's attitude before a world of 
things and persons which to know is to realize its 
own true self. Natural incentives are right, because 
they are conditions of unity between what the pupil 
is and what he ouerht to be. 



156 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

Artijicial Incentives. — These, as the name imphes, 
are not in the nature of things the result of the deed. 
And if one beheves in "the wise economy of nature, " 
and her laws, he can not consistently believe in arti- 
ficial incentives. It is doubtful, to say the least, 
whether artificial incentives are ever truly conditions 
of unity between the lower and higher self. Under 
the head of artificial incentives are to be classed, ex- 
aminations, per cents, rivalry, class honors, and class 
distinctions, prizes, etc. Mr. Tompkins voices the 
sentiments of many of our foremost educators when 
he says: "The use of such means necessarily kills 
the desire to know, which is immoral because killing 
the soul itself. Wlien a teacher, in good faith that 
the natural process of learning is its own sufficient 
reward, begins to instruct pupils who have been 
under the artificial stimulus of the per cent, system, 
he finds them to be indifferent to legitimate appeals, 
and ready to affirm that school life is not worth living 
without the usual excitement and strife for jjer cent. 
What hope for such pupils after the days of formal 
instructicml The severest criticism that can be made 
on school work is to show that students after gradua- 
tion have not a burning desire to pursue a systematic 
course of study and improvement. The use of false 
incentives is not the only reason for this; but it is 
largely chargeable to formal methods of instruction 
which necessitate artificial incentiv^es, which further 
renders instruction dead and formal. By this pro- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY, 157 

cess the pupil, if not becoming positively averse to 
study, feels satisfied and self-sufficient, and having 
no foreign incentive now offered, he is under no com- 
pulsion to further labor. If study means a contest 
with ponderable, per centable packages of knowl- 
edge, how play the game when there is no one to esti- 
mate and umpire? If the school is to determine to a 
future life of study, the motives appealed to and 
cultivated in school must be the same as those em- 
ployed in the natural, healthful course of life out of 
school." This quota ti(m certainly has much food for 
thought in it, to say the least. "The abiding passion 
of the soul is for knowledge, and all the teacher can 
properly do is to take this fact fairly and at its worth. 
The passion he may stimulate, make definite, and 
attach to the proper objects; but he can not introduce 
a substitute without weakening the life-giving con- 
nection between the pupil learning and the object 
being learned." 

SocUd liifliieuve.s. — The pupil is by nature a social 
being, and will live in society after leaving school. 
In the school in many instances he first begins to 
learn his duties with respect to others. In aU cases 
the pupil first begins to come fully to the conscious- 
ness of what it means to live in society. In the 
family the student begins to learn something of living 
in society, but it is in the school that he first meets 
with the conditions of society in anything like the 
condition he will be required to live in. The school 



15H STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

forms a transition from the family to the complex 
social life of the community. Here the pupil learns 
something of the difference between doing as he 
pleases and doing so as to lift himself to a higher 
plane of life and at the same time help those 
around him. The school has excellent opportunities 
to teach habits of politeness, order, truthfulness, in- 
dustry, and justice. But all this is unity between 
the student's real and ideal self. Thus social in- 
fluence is one of the conditicms in school for this 
unity. 

Brokcu rnitij. — But in the best regulated schools 
the unity will be broken. This may happen through 
ignorance, neglect, thoughtlessness, or wilfully. 
Since prevention is always better than cure, the main 
line of school government is in preventing broken 
unity. This is to be brought about by furnishing 
conditions for unity and eliminating those unfavor- 
able to unity. This consists first, foremost, and at 
all times in establishing sentiment in the lives of 
students in favor of those things conducive to unity 
and against those things unfavorable to unity. How- 
ever, the unity broken must be restored. And this 
brings us to the study of, 

The Restoration of lliitij. — If students have in 
iiihid (1) the nature of the school; (2) the law of unity; 
and (8) proper sentiments toward school behavior, 
most cases of broken unity on the part of students 
will be spontaneously and voluntarily restored. But 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 159 

it would be an almost ideal condition of things and 
one to be always sought for, in which broken unity 
would be constantly thus restored. Broken unity 
must be restored by the teacher as an agent. This 
becomes a not difficult task when the conditions in- 
sisted on all along in this study have been established 
in school. Confidential talks with students by the 
teacher calling attention to the offense in a sympa- 
thetic manner may be used with lasting and benefi- 
cent results. Often nothing is necessary but to call 
the student's attentitm to the misbehavior. However, 
obstinate cases will arise which must not be passed 
by lightly, and this brings us to the question of, 

School Pinrislimoits. — This is the most delicate as 
well as the most disagreeable feature of the teacher's 
duties. However important, a full study of school 
punishments can not be undertaken here. It should 
be remembered that punishment is to restore broken 
unity and that punishment which fails of this can not 
be considered a success. Punishment must be re- 
formative rather than vindictive. Plato was surely 
right when he said only the unreasonable fury of a 
brute would punish vindictively. The teacher never 
accomplishes anything helpful to the school who 
simply by punishment arouses the antagonism of the 
pupil. 

No recipes can be given for particular cases, but 
the study of nature's punishments enables us to lay 
down the following principle which is always safe to 



160 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

follow : The punishment should he what in the nature of 
fhhigs follou's as a 7'esult of the offense. There may be 
cases where this principle can not be followed, and 
again it may be very difficult to determine what 
naturally follows as a result of the offense. But, 
when at all possible, this principle should guide. It 
will be noticed that this discussion almost entirely 
excludes corporal punishment. And this is doubt- 
less w^hat it should do. It is safe to say that corporal 
punishment has little or no place in the process of re- 
storing broken unity. In ninety-nine • cases in a 
hundred of corporal punishment the teacher thor- 
oughly antagonizes the student. There may be some 
cases which require corporal punishment, but they 
are rare. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE PROCESS IN THE TEACHING ACT,— METHOD. 

The TeadiiiKj Act. — The school exists as an organ- 
ization in order that the most favorable conditions 
may be furnished for the act of teaching. It is in 
this act that the mind of the pupil comes into vital 
touch with the mind of the teacher. Here the 
miracle of the influence of one mind upon another is 
manifested. Here it is that an all-important duty of 
the teacher is involved. To this process all other 
processes of the school point. The school finds the 
idea that created it in the process of realization in the 
teaching act. The act of teaching is a process for it 
is a series of steps directed toward the accomplish- 
ment of an end. The teaching act is not a simple 
process for it is a large process made up of smaller 
processes. 

The Processes in It. — A brief analysis of the teach- 
ing act will show that there are three processes going 
on in it, — (1) the thinking the learner is doing; (2) the 
thinking the teacher is doing; (3) a process of hand- 
ling questions, directions, objects, assignments, and 
so on — the manipulation of means in teaching. The 
first two of these processes are spiritual, or mental, 



162 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

processes, and the third is external to both the mind 
of the teacher and the pupil and is a physical process. 

IlluHfration. — In teaching the definition of a noun 
to a student, first, the student's mind goes through 
the process of thinking (1) that the noun is a substan- 
tive word; and (2) that it expresses an object by 
naming it. This is the process in the mind of the 
student in the teaching act. Secondly, the teacher 
thinks these same points through with the student, 
but he thinks several other things, too. This is the 
spiritual process of the teacher in the teaching act. 
Thirdly, there is a process of asking questions, 
illustrating, possibly referring to text-books, etc., 
going on, and this is the physical process in the 
teaching act. 

Nature of Method as a Subject of Study. — The ques- 
tion. What is the subject of method like? is often 
asked. It may be answered in a general way by say- 
ing it is a subject of study the pursuit of which has 
for its special object to make teachers more skillful 
in teaching than they would be without such study. 
But this much might be said of any pedagogical 
study — of psychology, for instance. To be more 
definite, method as a subject is that study which 
deals with the three processes in the act of teaching 
as indicated above. These three processes in their 
various phases constitute the material of all study in 
the subject of method. 

The Subject-matter of Method. — By subject-matter 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 163 

is meant the material of study in any subject or 
lesson. It is the thought and feeling embodied in 
any subject or lesson which are to be got from such 
subject or lesson by study. It always consists of 
facts and relations among such facts. So the subject- 
matter of method, as a subject of study, is the three 
processes, one in the mind of the learner, one in the 
mind of the teacher, and one a physical process, in 
their relation to the growth in the life of the learner. 

Dejitntion of 3 let hod. — Method is thus seen to be a 
complex and comprehensive thing. Any definition to 
be perfectly accurate, must include the various 
phases of these three processes. The following, it 
seems, does this: Method is the triple process in the 
act of teaching by ivhich the learner is inditced to take the 
steps from his real condition to a higher condition held up 
as an ideal. This is the definition of method consid- 
ered in its broadest and most comprehensive sense, 
and the sense in which its study wiU give the most 
help to the teacher. 

Classes of Jfethod. — Since there are three pro- 
cesses going on in the teaching act there are, in a 
sense, three methods, — the learner's method, the 
teacher's method, and physical method. These three 
will be studied somewhat in detail. 

The Learner's Method. — The learner's method is 
the movement of his mind in gaining any point of 
knowledge. The pupil's method is thus a living, 
spiritual process internal to his life. Method from 



164 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

this point of view is mental growth. That is to say, 
it is the change of potential mental activity into 
actual mental activity, and this is the essence of 
growth. 

IllnMration. — If the child learns in a nninber 
lesson that 8+7=15, the activity of his mind in think- 
ing the following steps is his method: (1) the mind 
rethinks the number H; (2) the mind rethinks the 
number 7: (3) the mind thinks the number H and 7 
together: (4) the mind thinks the name of the new 
number. These four steps are the mind's process in 
thinking the point of knowledge, and are, therefore, 
the mind's method. This phase of method calls at- 
tention to the fact that the thing to be watched and 
emphasized in teaching is the change in the learner's 
life by which he is constantly rising to a higher plane 
of living. 

Definition of t/ie Leor)ier'.s Met hod. — This phase of 
method may be characterized by the following detini- 
ti(ms: 

1. Method is tlie process in the learner's mind in 
thinking a thing. 

2. Method is the movement by which the mind of 
the learner identifies itself with the thought and feel- 
ing of the external world. The external world here 
means anything external to the mind of the learner. 

8. Method is the mental activity in which tlie 
mind makes the objective the subjective. The object- 
ive means the external world, and the subjective 



STIII>I1<:S IN PEDAGOGY. 165 

means the self. And the self means one's original 
capacity to know, to feel, and to will, ])lus the effect 
of exjjeriences on this power. 

4. Method is the process by w^hich the mind of 
the learner goes from its real condition to an ideal 
condition. One's real condition is his condition just 
as he is at any time. His ideal conditi<jn is one differ- 
ent from what he is in at any time, and which actually 
has no existence except as an idea in the mind: hence 
the name Ideal. The ideal condition is not necessarily 
a better condition than the real, but may be either 
a better or worse condition. 

The Teacher's Method. — The part the teacher per- 
forms in the process of teaching- is a very important 
topic of study in the subject of method. This must 
be thoroughly understood by one who is to succeed 
best. To study this is to study the teacher's method. 
And to this we turn. 

First, the teacher must think the thought in the 
IJoint or points to be taught: that is, he must think 
the siibjeet-iiiatter. Seccmdly, he must see in terms 
of development of the learner's life the reasons for 
teaching the subject-matter: that is, he must see the 
liurpose. Thirdly, the teacher must see the nearest 
related knowledge possessed by the learner w^hich he 
can use as a foundation to build upon in teaching the 
new point; that is, he must see the basia. Fourthly, 
the teacher must see the activities the learner's mind 
puts forth in mastering the points of truth in the 



166 S^UDlfiS IN PEDAGOGY, 

subject-matter; that is, he must see the steps. 
Lastly, the teacher must see the means he may best 
employ in leading the mind of the learner to take the 
steps in mastering the subject-matter; that is, the 
teacher must think out the devices. Thus the teacher 
in teaching a lesson must think (1) the subject-matter; 
(2) the purpose; (3) the basis; (4) the steps; and (5) 
the devices. These live things every teacher does in 
some sort of way in teaching every lesson. Some 
think them out clearly and accurately, and some 
think them out scarcely at all, and do not know that 
they do even that much. A teacher can think the 
teaching of a single point, or of a whole lesson, or of 
a whole subject, under these five heads, and must do 
so with more or less accuracy in teaching. It is 
worth our while to study these five points further for 
the help the study will give. 

Subject-matter. — In a general way the subject- 
matter is that which is to be mastered by study. It 
is the thought embodied in the thing studied by the 
mind of the learner. In a particular lesson the sub- 
ject-matter is just that to be got from the lesson 
which the learner should have after the recitation. 
In a particular subject, as grammar or history, the 
subject-matter is just that to be got from the subject 
which the learner should be in possessicm of after the 
study of the subject. In this general sense the sub- 
ject-matter of education is the whole world of 
thought. This study is too general to be very help- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 167 

ful. A closer study will reveal the fact that every 
subject-matter is composed of two things: (1) The 
facts to be taught. (2) The relation in which these 
facts are to be taught or studied. 

Illustration. — Suppose the words, inquiry, dis- 
course, and aspirant are to be taught. Now, a spelling 
lesson might be made of it; and if it were a spelling 
lesson, the subject-matter w^ould be, the words, in- 
quiry, discourse, and asjnrant, as to their correct 
written or printed forms. Thus the words inquiry, 
discourse, and aspirant are the facts to be taught or 
studied, and "as to their written or printed form " 
indicates the relation in which they are to be taught 
or studied. But these same facts might be used, 
and the lesson not be a speUing lesson at all. If the 
relation they are to be studied or taught in is as to 
their correct pronunciation the lesson would be one 
in orthoepy, and the subject-matter would be, the 
words, inquiry, discourse, and aspirant as to their cor- 
rect pronunciation. 

Further Illustration. — Suppose the facts of the 
revolution of the earth around the sun are taught, 
who can say whether the lesson is one in astronomy 
or one in geography? If, however, these are taught 
in their relation to the distribution of life, climate and 
relief forms on the earth's surface, the lesson at once 
reveals itself as a geography lesson. From these 
illustrations it is to be seen that a subject-matter con- 
sists of (1) the facts to be taught or studied: and (2) 



168 STUDIES IN PEUA(40GY. 

the relation in which these facts are to be considered. 
This relation is often caUed the organizing principle 
of the subject-matter. 

General Statement of Subject-matter. — The state- 
ment of subject-matter is not the subject mattei- any 
more than a word is an idea, or a sentence a thought. 
The statement of the subject-matter bears the same 
relation to the subject-matter that the word bears to 
the idea and that the sentence bears to the thought: 
that is, the statement bears the same relation to the 
subject-matter that the symbol does to the thing 
symbolized. 

The general statement of a subject-matter is very 
valuable to a teacher, whether it be of a single lesson, 
or of a whole subject. It is helpful to the teacher 
because it must do two things: (1) it must name the 
facts to be taught, and (2) it must tell the relation in 
which these facts are to be taught. Thus the general 
statement of the subject-matter of any subject is a 
perennial guide to the teacher in teaching that sub- 
ject, in that it shows, in a general way, what to teach 
and in what relation (how) to teach it. 

Piirj)(>se.- -Purpose in reality is beginning and end 
in every process. The purpose as idea — the begin- 
ning — moves forward in the process to its realization 
— the end. The purpose exists in the teacher's mind, 
but it is to be realized in the life of the learner. The 
purpose is the effect the mastery of the subject- 
matter should have on the life of the child. In actual 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 169 

teaching the teacher is to go from the subject-matter 
by way of comparison of the effect the thinking the 
subject-matter has on his own mind to its effect on 
the child's life, which is the purpose. That is to say, 
there is no way to tell the purpose of the subject- 
matter except from the effect its mastery produces 
on the child's life. The course of study — the subject- 
matter — is usually provided for the teacher. So the 
teacher must start with the subject-matter and find 
out the purpose in teaching it. Much depends in the 
teaching act upon how w^ell the teacher does this. If 
the teacher has definitely in mind just what he wants 
to do in the lesson he will be drawn steadily and con- 
stantly toward its accomplishment. A definite pur- 
pose saves time, economizes energy, emphasizes the 
important, organizes, and prevents aimless w^ander- 
ing. 

It will be seen that in teaching any lesson there 
are two phases of the purpose: (1) to give knowledge 
valuable for guidance in living; (2) to give mental dis- 
cipline; that is, to furnish a mental gymnastic to the 
end that the mind may grow^ strong by exercising it. 

Basis. — This is the learner's nearest related 
knowledge to the new points to be taught, and upon 
which the teacher may build in teaching the new 
point. Basis is an important point in teaching. Many 
errors are made in teaching because the learner has 
not basis for learning the new point, or because the 
teacher does not see the basis. Teaching in harmony 



170 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

with the principle underlying basis, the mind natur- 
ally goes to the unknonin from the nearest related known, 
means a progressive development of a subject, each 
step becoming basis for the step succeeding it. 
There are many violations of basis in teaching, as 
often done. 

Illustration. — If the lesson to be taught is that 
5-)-4 — 9, the child must know the number 5 and the 
number 4 as basis before he could learn that 5+4 = 9. 
If the teacher should attempt to teach this lesson 
without having taught the numbers 5 and 4 he would 
meet with the difficulty of insufficient basis. Again, 
if a teacher attempts to teach the noun to a class 
without the class having a detinite knowledge of an 
object, he will most surely meet a difficulty in the 
basis. The teacher to teach well must see and 
choose definitely his basis. 

Steps. — Steps are more or less complete move- 
ments of the mind. They are mental things and in 
the teaching act are in the life of the learner. They 
are the advances of the mind in mastering the 
separate points of the lesson to be learned. Or in a 
more general sense they are the advances of the mind 
in mastering the various phases of a subject. 

Illustration. — If the lesson to be taught were that 
17 — 8 = 9, the steps would be: 1. The advance of the 
mind in rethinking the number 17; 2. The advance of 
the mind in rethinking the number 8; 3. The advance 
of the miud in thinkino: the number 9 as remainder. 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 171 

Again, if the lesson were, to teach the definition of 
the triangle, after examining several triangles, the 
steps would be: 1. The advance of the mind in think- 
ing that a triangle is a figure. 2. The advance of the 
mind in thinking a triangle has three sides. 3. The 
advance of the mind in thinking a triangle has three 
angles. 4. The advance of the mind in synthesizing 
these points in the definition, A triangle is a figure 
having three sides and three angles. 

To know the steps the mind takes in working out 
any new lesson is a matter of much importance to the 
teacher. He must know something of the steps or 
he can not teach at all; and, other things equal, the 
more clearly the teacher has thought the steps, the 
better will he teach the lesson. 

Devices. — The devices are the various things used 
by the teacher to lead the mind of the learner to think 
and feel in the manner desired. A synonym for de- 
vices is the term means. Devices, or means, consti- 
tute a very important factor in teaching. There is 
opportunity for the exercise of rare judgment, tact 
and skill in the selection of devices. When it is 
understood that questions, text-books, and reference 
books, maps, globes, and school apparatus in general; 
blocks, sticks, etc., are devices in teaching, something 
of their importance in school work becomes evident. 
Devices are so important that among many, method 
means nothing more than the manipulation of devices. 
However important they are it must not be lost sight 



172 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

of that they are always determined in the light of the 
mental process they are to induce. They are means 
to an end, and in nature the end is always more im- 
l^ortant than the means. 

Met hod as a Phi/.sicc/ Process. — It is, perhaps, using 
the term method in its most popular significance to 
think of it as meaning some physical process external 
to the life of the learner. That is to say, it is using 
the term in the sense in which most jDersons com- 
monly use it in speaking and writing. This idea 
of method is the one usually held by persons who 
have not made any careful study of what the term 
really ought to mean. There is a sort of indefinite- 
ness in the minds of most of such persons as to just 
what they do mean by method. Hc^wever, upon ex- 
amination it win be found usually that the idea that 
method is the manner of doing some physical thing 
prevails, though even this is held in mind more or 
less vaguely. From thinking of method in this sense 
we have the following terms: "Object Method," 
"Ccmcert Method," "Consecutive Method," "Pro- 
miscuous Method, " " Socratic Method, " and "Labo- 
ratory Method. " 

These all refer to the manipulation of objects, 
questions, and answers in the teaching act, and so 
are to be studied briefly under method as a physical 
process. 

The Object Method. — By this is meant a handling 
of objects by teacher and pupils in the process of 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 173 

learning. It i.s a good line of work, if used judi- 
ciously. It has its proper place in teaching number 
work, primary geography, and primary language. 

The Concert Jfethod. --The concert method means 
having students to answer questions, read and speak 
simultaneously in the recitati(m. There is much that 
may be said against C(mcert work, but very little to 
be said for it. It is objectionable because it (1) 
violates the law of self activity; (2) stifles individual 
effort and individual responsibihty; (3) does not bring 
out clear, definite answers or thinking: and (4) leads 
to confusion, disorder, and chaotic class work. 
There may possibly be instances in which concert 
work may be used advantageously, but as a rule it 
should be avoided. 

The Conseciftive Method. — The consecutive method 
of asking and answering in the recitation means 
beginning at some point, the head of the class, or at 
the name beginning with a, and proceeding in some 
regular order back to the point of starting. In pro- 
ceeding in recitation this way the students know 
pretty weh wiien the "turn " of each one comes. 
This method, like the preceding one, has many things 
against it, but little to recommend it. It is objection- 
able because it leads to (1) habits of inattention: 
(2) disorder and disorganization of the class: (3) 
habits of idleness; and (4) bad methods of study. 
However good a student may be, if, when he has 
answered a question, he know^s to a certainty that he 



174 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

will not be called upon again for some time, the 
tendency is for him to relax his attention. If the 
student is not a good (me, the tendency in this kind of 
work is for him to become worse, and since he is not 
called upon to attend closely he is prone to do some- 
thing else, thereby causing disorder and disorganiza- 
tion. Idleness in the class is a direct result of inat- 
tention, and bad habits of study result from the 
student's being able to prepare just those points in 
the lesson which he has reckoned will come to him. 

Proiinscitou}^ Wor/c. — The promiscuous method of 
asking questions and receiving answers refers to dis- 
tributing the questions and receiving answers from 
students promiscuously. No student knows to whom 
the answer to the question will fall. This method un- 
like the two preceding has much to be said for it and 
little or nothing against it. It is desirable because 
(1) it fosters habits of attention and concentraticm; (^) 
it is flexible and gives the teacher the best opportuni- 
ties for meeting the needs of individual students; (3) 
it fosters habits of order and organization in the class 
work; and (4) it tends to industrious habits and right 
methods of study. By the use of the promiscuous 
method students are held constantly to attending to 
the question under consideration, to the careful prep- 
aration of the lesson as a whole, and to order and 
unity in the class. As a rule, the promiscuous 
method is certainly the best for class work. 

Catechetic Metliod. — This is, in its original form, 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 175 

not much used any more, and so needs very little said 
about it. According to this method the question was 
written in the text-book and just after the question 
was the answer to it. The student's business was to 
read the question, and then commit to memory the 
answer. In the recitation the teacher with text-book 
in hand read the question and the student gave, in the 
words of the text, the answer. Such a manner of 
conducting a recitation has nothing to recommend it 
and so needs no further study. 

Lecture Method. — The lecture method refers to 
teaching by means of talks or lectures. This method, 
perhaps, has its advantages and disadvantages. It 
is certainly not adapted to all kinds of school work, 
and probably not adapted to any kind of school work 
if used exclusively. There are, however, some phases 
of school work which may be profitably taught by 
talks, or lectures. To elementary school work the 
lecture method is not at all adapted, and but very 
poorly adapted to secondary school work. In the 
first eight years of the child's school life he must be 
taught differently than by this method. That stays 
with the child which he has an opportunity to see, 
hear, and think about. This, however, is not to be 
construed to mean that oral teaching should not be 
done in primary history, primary geography, nature 
work, etc. If the lecture method has any legitimate 
place in school work, it is in college and university 
work. However it may seem theoretically, it re- 



176 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

mains as a fact that those thin^^s which are digged 
out by the student, recited upon in the class, and dis- 
cussed by questions and answers are the things 
which in the end stay with him and do him good. 
Certainly the lecture method in the average teacher's 
scliool work is, to say the least, to be used sparingly, 
and with much caution when used at all. 

llic Socniilr Method. — This method takes its name 
from Socrates a Greek philosopher and teacher born 
469 B. C. It is sometimes called the developing 
method. It proceeds by the employment of subtle 
questi(ms to lead the student to think what it is de- 
sired for him to think without telling him anything. 
"The Socratic method, more or less perfectly under- 
stood, has had great influence upon professional 
pedagogy. In many schools for the professional 
training of teachers, and in many schools in charge 
of teachers professionally trained, systematic ques- 
tioning of this sort is looked upon as ideal teaching; 
and there is no lack of conscientious endeavor to pre- 
pare for use in recitation, series of questions which 
shall lead the child's mind to take the logical steps 
which given occasion requires. One who doubts the 
value of such systematic questioning may usually be 
(converted by hearing a single typical recitation C(m- 
ducted by a master of the art. The power of such a 
recitation to touch, move, chasten, and direct the soul 
is so evident, that if Socrates and Plato had taught us 
nothing but how to do such work their fame as 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 177 

teachers would be justified." It is noteworthy that 
the "Socratic Method" is diametrically opposed to 
the "Lecture Method. " 

The Laboratorii Method: — This is also often called 
the "Scientific Method," and it means a procedure in 
which the student is lead to investigate and think for 
himself. It is opposed to taking things on mere 
authority without investigation, and to the text-book 
method. It proceeds by leading the student to deal 
with the actual material of study rather than to deal 
with what some (me has said about it. In botany, 
studied in this way, the student deals with plants; in 
zoology, with animals: in grammar, with sentences 
and parts of sentences. This method has much to 
recommend it. 1. It fosters habits of free inquiry 
and free investigation. 2. It is the mind's natural 
way of learning. H. It makes the student self- 
directive and self-helpful. 4. It fixes with the 
student right methods of study. 5. It gives the 
student a critical attitude of mind. All these are 
very desirable characteristics for a student to have. 

CoviparUon of Tecicher's and PnpiVs Method. — These 
two methods are alike as follows: 1. They are both 
spiritual processes. 2. The mind of the learner and 
the mind of the teacher in general go through the 
same process in thinking the thing to be learned. 8. 
Both the teacher and the joupil keep in mind to some 
extent the purpose of the process in the teaching act. 

These two methods are different as follows: 1. 



17H STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

The teacher, in addition to thinking the truths to be 
learned, must think the learner's thinking of them. 
2. The teacher must think out the means or devices 
to be used in leading the learner to think the desired 
points of truth. 3. While both the teacher and the 
pupil keep in mind the purpose, the teacher sees it 
definitely, or should do so, while the pupil only sees it 
vaguely. The teacher's method thus includes more 
than the learner's. 

Two Vieivs of Method. — The foregoing study sug- 
gests to us that there are two views of method. It is 
unfortunate that educational writers hold these two 
views, as considerable confusion prevails because of 
this fact. One class of educators, those who have 
studied method least, mean by method simply the 
physical process in the act of teaching. A second 
class, those who have been special students of 
method, mean by method the triple process in the act 
of teaching. 

Comparison of the Tiro Vieivs. — In our study of 
method we may call these two views respectively the 
popular vieio and the special view. The popular view 
will thus designate method as the manipulation of ex- 
ternal means, or devices, and the special \iew will 
designate method as the triple process. 

Thinking of method according to the ]Dopular 
view constantly places the mind's emphasis upon 
something external to the life of the learner. This 
has in the past led to much that was bad in teaching 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 179 

and is still doing so. The teacher loses sight thus of 
the fact that it is in the learner's life that the educat- 
ing process is to be carried on. He is prone to make 
the manipulating, the text-book, or some petty 
scheme of teaching an end instead of a means. Every 
question that arises concerning teaching must be 
settled in the light of the effect upon the life of the 
learner. The ultimate question is. How does it affect 
the life of the learner? The process in which the 
mind of the learner masters the new point of knowl- 
edge is the point of prime importance in the teaching 
act and the thing always to be emphasized in the 
study of the act of teaching. The popular view of 
method leads to almost helpless confusion. Every- 
one holding this view who happens to use some differ- 
ent device, or means, in teaching calls it his method 
and gives it a name. Since there is an almost in- 
finite number of devices which may be used, there 
thus arises an almost infinite number of methods, 
which no teacher can or desires to keep informed 
upon. This leads to a hopelessly chaotic condition of 
things in the study of method. 

The popular view of method has led to much 
disparagement of the study of method among persons 
who should be friendly to its study. These are often- 
times persons who are very good thinkers, but who 
have not given special study to method. It is a com- 
mon remark among this class of teachers, that one 
may study method in a subject at the expense of 



ISO STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

a knowledge of that subject. The depreciating re- 
marks made about method, which arise from the 
popular view of method, are a source of much harm 
to the profession of teaching. This is true, because 
many persons who would make a careful study of 
method and would receive the benefit that must come 
to the teacher thereby, are kept from beginning the 
study by this disparaging attitude on the part of 
some teachers. It may be safely said that there is 
need for no one thing among teachers more than an 
intensely professional spirit. It seems strange that 
some teachers take pleasure in saying depreciating 
things about method work. It is, however, probably 
to be explained from a misconception of method. I 
have never yet heard the first person speak depreci- 
atingly of method, who has been a student of the sub- 
ject. 

The special view may be proven to be the better 
view. This is the argument: A thing is good ac- 
cordingly as it realizes the purpose which brought it 
into existence. Method as a subject came into ex- 
istence to supply the want for something the study 
of which would help the teacher to do better work in 
his daily teaching. Accordingly, that thing whose 
study helps the teacher most is the best. It has 
already been shown that the study of method as a 
triple process is more helpful to the teacher than the 
study of method as the manner of mani])ulating some 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 181 

external means or devices. Therefore, the special 
view is the better view of method. 

No Danger in Too Much Study. — It is not difficult 
to see that there is no danger of a teacher's devoting 
too much time to the study of method when one takes 
the proper view of method. The teacher can not 
study the process through which the mind goes in 
mastering any point of knowledge until he has the 
knowledge himself. For instance, the teacher can 
not see the mental steps the mind of the learner takes 
in learning the definition of an adjective without 
knowing the definition of an adjective himself. To 
know the method in teaching the definition of an 
adjective is to know two things: 1. The definition of 
an adjective. 2. The process the mind naturally em- 
ploys in learning the definiticm of an adjective. No 
teacher can rationally and well teach the adjective 
who does not know these two things. 

Further Illustration. — In the teaching of history 
this point becomes quite evident. The teacher who 
knows method in history knows these two things: 1. 
The events of mankind in their relation to the struggle 
of the race for freedom. That is to say, he must 
know history. 2. The natural processes of the mind 
in learning history. No teacher can teach history at 
all without a knowledge of the first, and it is equally 
clear to any person who will think, that no one can 
teach history weU without a knowledge of the second. 

So this question resolves itself into the following: 



182 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

it is not possible for a teacher to study method too 
much, unless it is possible for a teacher to know too 
much about his subjects and to know too well the 
mind's natural process in learning those subjects. 

Factors Deter mhi 'nxj Method. — Nearly twenty years 
ago one of our foremost educators said, 'The law in 
the mind and the thought in the thing studied de- 
termine the method.' This statement can not well 
be improved upon. And it reveals the two factors 
which determine method. They are (1) the law in the 
mind; (2) the thought in the thing studied. It is to 
be noticed that it is the law of the mind; that is, the 
general truths of mental activity — the forms of 
activity common to all minds. Each mind has indi- 
vidual traits, but in general, all minds act in the same 
way. The laws of mind are the forms of activity 
common to all minds. Each thing is the embodiment 
of thought. That is to say, each thing expresses 
thought. Longfellow's " Evangeline, " the ink-stand, 
the maple tree is each the embodiment of thought. 

Ultistration. — Holding in mind that method is the 
mind's process of learning, we can readily see that 
the process is different in learning different things, 
or largely the same in learning things much alike. 
The activity the mind puts forth in learning the defi- 
nition for the noun is very different from that put 
forth in getting the thought and feeling from Tenny- 
son's " Bugle Song. " One cause of the difference is, 
that there is a great difference in the thought em- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 183 

bodied in the two things. This illustrates that the 
thought in the thing studied is a factor in determin- 
ing the method. Again, a child of six could not 
under any set of circumstances solve a difficult 
geometry problem because it would violate the laws 
of the mind. He could on the other hand learn that 
the printed word liat represents the idea hat. Thus 
in this case the law of the mind would determine the 
method. 

The whole study of method should emphasize the 
truth that the essential thing in teaching is opening 
up the way for the realization of the child 's inherent 
possibilities. 

"Truth is within ourselves; it takes no rise 
From outward things, what e'er you may believe 
There is an inmost center in us all. 
Where truth abides in fulness, and around. 
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in, 
****** And to know 
Rather consists in opening- out a way 
Whence the imprisoned splendor may escape. 
Than in effecting entry for a light 
Supposed to be without." 



CHAPTER X. 

THE REC;iTATION. 

The Nature of 1 lie Recitation. — The word recitatiou 
is of Latin origin and literally means a reading aloud. 
As the term is used now somewhat of the literal 
meaning may be found in it. It is commonly thought 
of now as the school process in w^hich the student re- 
thinks what he has learned previously and communi- 
cates this to the teacher and his fellow students. 
This is not all there is in the recitation, but it con- 
stitutes a considerable part of the process. In addi- 
ticm to the student's process of rethinking and com- 
municating to the teacher what he has jDreviously 
learned, there are in the recitation the suggestions, 
tests, directicms and encouragement by the teacher. 
The recitaticm is the crowning jorocess of the school 
organization. It is here more than any other place 
that the miracle of learning is stimulated. Good 
recitations are the test of good school work. 

Purposes of tlic Recitation. — The purposes of the 
recitation are as follows: 1. To furnish a place of 
meeting where the mind of the learner and the mind 
of the teacher may come into living touch under the 
most favorable conditions. 2. To test the learner on 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 185 

his preparation and understanding of the subject- 
matter of the lesson. 8. To supplement the knowl- 
edge of the subject-matter the student has gained in 
his preparation. 4. To give an insight into right 
methods of study. 5. To approve, encourage, in- 
spire, and stimulate the student in his work. It is 
worth while to take up each of these purposes for a 
brief study in order that they may be more clearly 
understood, and may be emphasized. 

Vital Contact of PupiVs and Teachers Minds. — In 
order that instruction may be most effective the act 
of teaching must be done under the most favorable 
circumstances. For it is in the act of teaching that 
the life of the teacher comes into closest touch with 
the life of the pupil. That these conditions may be 
most favorable the class should recite in a separate 
room from that in which the school is seated. Since 
this is not possible in so many schools, the next best 
thing is to have the pupils to occupy a position in the 
room as nearly isolated from the other students as 
can be. Separate recitation rooms are the best, for 
there the most favorable conditions exist for bringing 
the mind of the learner in touch with the mind of the 
teacher in the teaching act. 

Testing on Preparation of Lesson. — Good teaching 
requires that some definite thing be demanded daily 
of the learner. And the requirement of tests on 
preparation and knowledge of what is demanded is 
imperative. The responsibility of getting up before 



186 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

the class and making recitations is a constant spur to 
the student in his work. Remissness in study 
always results from assigning lessons upon which 
students never recite. There is no surer way to in- 
duce bad habits of study than to assign lessons and 
then not test the students as to their preparation and 
knowledge of these lessons. And this is true of all 
students. The responsibility of preparation is 
brought home to the student in no other way so well 
as in the class room at recitation. Every one knows 
how prone he is to neglect work he has planned be- 
cause of lack of a definite responsibility. The testing 
to be most helpful must be accurate, critical and just. 
Students are often deceived into thinking they have 
prepared their lessons when they have not, because 
the testing is not well done in the recitation. If a 
student neglects to prepare his lesson, he should be 
brought face to face with his ignorance caused there- 
by. 

Sii{>j)/eiiienting the Kiioioledge of the Lesson. — It is 
not t(j be expected that the student will at aU times 
completely master the subject-matter of the lesson. 
Points more or less vague will be cleared up by the 
recitations of other students or by illustrations of the 
teacher. Points the student has not been able to 
work out will often become clear to him upon asking 
him questions which lead to their solution. And 
again there are points which the student can get 
from no other source than from the teacher. These 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 187 

the teacher should give directly to the student, and 
save time and guessing on the part of the student. 
One purpose of the recitation certainly is to sup- 
plement the knowledge the student gets from his 
preparation. 

Giving an Insif/hf [nto the Eight Metliods of Study. 
— It often happens that students are willing to pre- 
pare their lessons, but they do not know how to 
study. The teacher has opportunity in two ways to 
show the students how to study. First, by his re- 
quirements in the daily recitation work. If the 
student is constantly held accurately to the careful 
preparation of each point assigned, he will soon come 
to understand what it means to prepare a lesson: and 
from what is w^orked out on the separate points, he 
will see what is expected to be done with each point. 
Secondly, the teacher may actually and directly dis- 
cuss how to proceed in the preparation of the lessons. 
This the teacher must do from time to time. 

Approving, Encouraging, Inspiring and Stiinulat- 
ing. — Young people and old are of ten-times bettered 
by a word of approval. The teacher's opjjortunity 
for approving of that worthy of approval, and dis- 
approving of that not worthy of approbation is a means 
in his hands of working much good. Teachers are 
too ready to disapprove of the bad and let the meri- 
torious pass by as if unnoticed. Every child is 
capable of something worthy, and should be made to 
feel so. There is certainly a place in the recitation 



186 STtJDiES IN PEDAGOGY. 

for approval, encouragement, and inspiration. The 
teacher who can so teach that his pupils will be in- 
spired to study his subjects after leaving school, in 
the pursuit for truth and righteousness is a success- 
ful teacher. 

The Law of the Recifation. — The law of the recita- 
tion is the same as the law of the school; that is, the 
law of unity. Without any unity between teacher and 
pupils the recitation could not be, but it often actually 
exists with various degrees of unity. When the 
minds of all the students are following the mind of 
the teacher as the recitation progresses there is ideal 
unity. To approach this condition of things is always 
to be sought; and, other things equal, the recitation 
will be successful in the degree to which this is 
attained. Either teacher or pupils may break the law 
of unity in recitation. Wliispering, while not wrong 
in itself, is a positive sin when engaged in during the 
recitation. And if sin is the transgression of law, he 
who whispers during the recitation is a sinner, for he 
has broken the law. It is to be deplored that there is 
any teacher in the land who can not see his way clear 
to setting the stamp of disapproval on whispering in 
school. It is absolutely indefensible. But there are 
many ways of breaking unity in the recitation. The 
teacher may break the unity by conducting the reci- 
tation in such a way that there can not by any possi- 
bility be unity. The following quotation will illus- 
trate: "Here is a picture taken from life: School- 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 189 

room of two grades (seventh and eighth), of about 
twenty pupils each. Good teacher, as the world 
goes; lesson in denominate numbers by the seventh 
grade. Teacher directs one boy to pass to the board 
and solve the first problem; another the second; and 
so on till the ten problems are used. Then, commenc- 
ing again with the first problem, re-assigns the ten 
problems severally to the next ten pupils. A few 
pupils remain without w^ork, and these are given 
selected problems to work at the desks, the board all 
being occupied. The teacher now steps back to talk 
to the visitor while waiting developments. Things 
always develop rapidly under such circumstances; 
and soon the teacher is needed by a girl working at 
her desk, where teacher and pupil discuss the prob- 
lem. Note here that it is all right for teacher and 
pupil to talk during the recitation, because the 
teacher makes the rules: two pupils must not talk; 
except to help each other, as they say. And this they 
soon do, for the bright girl points the way to the dull 
boy. The lirst boy has done his sum; and, rather 
than waste time, punches the lire, which is already 
too hot. Another bright lad cultivates the fantasy 
and freehand drawing; while some laggards toil on, 
with and without help, hopeless, and despairing of 
victory before time is called. The first boy explains 
to those who have done their work, while others toil 
pn. Fill out the picture at your leisure. In all it 



190 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

was a splendid display of self-activity, free thought, 
and free speech. 

What would the teacher have gained if he had re- 
quired all the problems to be put in neat form of pro- 
cess on slates or note-books; so that at the recitation 
he might have done something like this : called on the 
class as a whole for the first step in the problem, 
permitting one to speak for the class; then have said, 
' Take the step, ' calling on one to speak for the class 
again; and thus moving rapidly till all problems were 
solvedy" 

The law of unity in the recitati(m demands short 
recitation periods. When the minds of the students 
become fatigued to any great extent, it is impossible 
to maintain the unity. Forty minutes is probably 
long enough for any recitation period and in the case 
of young pupils it should be much less, its length 
depending upon the development of the student. 

The Teacher's Preparation for lli.e RecMaUon. — No 
teacher can do his best work without making daily 
preparation for his recitation. This preparati(m by 
the teacher is called lesson planniuxi. And by less(m 
planning is meant the process on the part of the 
teacher of working through each lesson a short time 
previous to teaching it, to the end of teaching it well. 
In short, it is the teacher's immediate preparation 
for teaching each lesson. Daily lesson planning is 
an absolute necessity to the teacher who will do the 
best teaching of which he is capable. No teacher 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 191 

should ever go before his class to teach a lesson 
without having studied it through for this particular 
recitation. This may seem too much of a require- 
ment to some teachers, since it will of necessity 
demand many sacrifices by them. To those who 
object on this ground, it may be said that the lives of 
the children demand just this sacrifice and more, and 
that those who are unwilling to give it should re- 
linquish their claims as teachers to those who are 
willing. Also, according to the law of the survival of 
the fittest these very teachers in the struggle for ex- 
cellency will be pushed to the rear that their places 
may be occupied by those more worthy. 

The teacher having planned his lesson, comes to 
the recitation full of expectation and interest to see if 
all things will work out as thought out when planning. 
And according to the law of sympathy a good way to 
interest children in working is for the teacher to 
manifest intense interest. This is but one of the 
many benefits that come to the teacher from lesson 
planning. 

But the teacher's intentions may be excellent, 
and yet he may not succeed well because he has no 
systematic way of planning his lessons. In other 
words the teacher may see the necessity of lesson 
planning, but may not know how to plan a lesson. It 
will be remembered that under the head of " The 
Teacher's Method,'" our study showed that in the teach- 
ing act the teacher must think through (1) the sub- 



192 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

ject-matter: (2) the purpose; (3) the basis; (4) the 
steps; and (5) the devices. Lesson planning syste- 
matically done means thinking: out as accurately as 
possible just these five things before attempting to 
teach a lesson. 

Some teachers say they can depend upon the in- 
spiration of the moment in teaching. But the worst 
failures as teachers are those who attempt to depend 
upon the inspiration of the moment and find that the 
moment comes and goes without the inspiration. In- 
spiration is not a thing so easily got as to come along 
to help out the teacher who has not prepared himself 
for his recitation. 

Manner of Conducting the Becitdtion. — The manner 
of conducting the recitation is a very important point 
in teaching, for upon it depends to a large extent the 
teacher's success or failure. The teacher who has a 
mild pleasant way of leading his students in recita- 
tion inspires them with confidence, respect and love, 
while the loud, boisterous, spasmodic teacher fails in 
securing those very necessary attitudes of his pupils' 
minds. 

Recitations should be both oral and written. 
The oral should doubtless predominate, but written 
recitati(ms are also very necessary. This is true 
because the pupils will be called upon in life both in 
and out of school to communicate their thought and 
feeling in both oral and written discourse. To know 
is good, but not sufiicient. It was said a long tinu' 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 193 

ago that he who does not know is an ignoramus, but 
he who knows, and can not communicate what he 
knows and feels is a dumb statue. Certainly recita- 
tions should be conducted both orally and in writing, 
the oral recitation predominating. 

All of the following ways of manipulating ques- 
tions and answers have been used in recitation work: 
(1) concert work; (2) consecutive; (3) promiscuous; (4) 
catechetic; (5) Socratic; (6) lecture. These have been 
called methods of conducting the recitation. This is 
using method according to the popular view. It is 
worth while to study briefly each one of these 
methods of conducting the recitation. 

Concert Work. — Concert work has reference to the 
students' answering questions, reading, etc., simul- 
taneously. There is much to say against it, but very 
little to be said for it. It is objectional because it (1) 
violates the law of self -activity; (2) stifles individual 
effort and individual responsibility; (3) does not bring 
out clear, definite answers or thinking; and (4) leads 
to habits of confusion, disorder, and chaos in class 
work. There may be instances in which it can be 
used to advantage, but, as a rule, answering ques- 
tions, reading, etc., simultaneously by the students is 
to be avoided. 

Consecutive Work: — The consecutive method of 
asking and answering in the recitation means begin- 
ning at some starting point, the head of the class, or 
fit the name beginning with A, and proceeding in 



l^-i STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

some regular order back to the point of starting. In 
proceeding in recitation this way the students know 
pretty well when the "turn" of each one comes. 
This method like the preceding one has much to be 
said against it, but not much to be said in its favor. 
It is objectionable because it leads to (1 ) habits of in- 
attention; (2) disorder and disorganization of the class: 
(8) habits of idleness; and (4) bad methods of study. 
However good a student may be, if, when he has 
answered a question, he knows to a certainty that he 
will not be called upon again for some time, the 
tendency is for him to relax his attention. If the 
student is not a good one, the tendency in this kind 
of work is for him to become worse; and since he is 
not caUed upon to attend closely he is prone to do 
something else, thereby causing disorder and dis- 
organization. Idleness in the class is a direct result 
of inattention, and bad habits of study result from 
the student's being able to prepare just those points 
in the lesson which he has reckoned will come to him. 
Promi.scvoys Work. — The promiscuous method of 
asking questions and receiving answers refers to dis- 
tributing the questions and receiving answers from 
students promiscuously. No student knows to whom 
the answering of the question will fall. This method 
unlike the two preceding has much to be said for it 
and little t)r nothing to be said against it. It is de- 
sirable because (1) it fosters habits of attention and 
concentration; (2) it is llexible and giv(>s the teacher 



STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 195 

the best opportunities of meeting the needs of indi- 
vidual students; (3) it fosters habits of order and 
organization in the class work; and (4) it tends to in- 
industrious habits, and right methods of study. By 
the use of the promiscuous method all students are 
held constantly to attending to the question under 
consideration, to the careful preparation of the lesson 
as a whole, and to order and unity in the class. As a 
rule the promiscuous method is certainly the best for 
class work. 

Catechetic Method. — This is, in its original form, 
not much used any more, and so needs very little said 
about it. According to this method the question was 
written in the text-book and just following it, the 
answer. The student's business was to read the 
question, and then commit to memory the answer. 
In the recitation the teacher with text-book in hand 
read the question and the student gave in the words 
of the text, the answer. Such a manner of conduct- 
ing a recitation has nothing to recommend it and so 
needs no further study. 

Lecture Method. — The lecture method refers to 
teaching by means of talks or lectures. This method 
perhaps has its advantages and disadvantages. It is 
certainly not adapted to all kinds of school work, and 
probably not adapted to any kind of school work, if 
used exclusively. There are, however, some phases 
of school work which may be profitably taught by 
talks, or lectures followed by questions on them. To 



196 STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

elementary school work the lecture method is not at 
all adapted, and but very poorly adapted to secondary 
school work. In the first eight years of the child's 
school life he must be taught differently than by this 
method. That stays with the child which he has an 
opportunity to see, hear, and think about. This, 
however, is not to be construed to mean that oral 
teaching should not be done in primary history, pri- 
mary geography, nature work, etc. If the lecture 
method has any legitimate place in school work, it is 
in coUege and university work. However it may seem 
theoretically, it remains as a fact that those things 
which are digged out by the student, recited upon in 
the class, and discussed by questions and answers 
are the things which in the end stay with him and do 
him good. Certainly the lecture method in the 
average teacher's school work is, to say the least, to 
be used sparingly, and with much caution, if used at 
all. 

The Socratic Method. — This method takes its name 
from Socrates, a Greek philosopher and teacher, 
born 469 B. C. It is sometimes called the developing 
method. It proceeds by the emi3loyment of subtle 
questions to lead the student to think what it is de- 
sired for him to think, without telling him anything. 
"The Socratic method, more or less perfectly under- 
stood, has had great influence upon professional peda- 
gogy. In many schools for the p]-(^fessional training 
of teachers and 'in many 'schools in charge of teach- 



STUblfeS IN PEDAGOGY. 197 

ers professionally trained, systematic questioning of 
this sort is looked upon as ideal teaching; and there 
is no lack of conscientious endeavor to prepare for 
use in recitation, series of questions which shall lead 
the child's mind to take the logical steps which given 
occasion requires. One who doubts the value of such 
systematic questioning may usually be converted by 
hearing a single typical recitation conducted by a 
master of the art. The power of such a recitation to 
touch, move, chasten, and direct the soul is so evi- 
dent, that if Socrates and Plato had taught us noth- 
ing but how to do such work their fame as teachers 
would be justified. " It is noteworthy that the So- 
cratic method is diametrically opposed to the lecture 
method. 

Assignments. — While assignments are properly to 
be regarded as devices in teaching, and while devices 
have already been studied, they are so important in 
teaching that we are justified in studying them as a 
separate topic. There is no other device in the hands 
of the teacher that can be used so effectively as as- 
signments. Clear, definite, logical assignments bring 
clear, definite, logical thinking. On the other hand 
bad assignments bring bad recitations and lead to 
bad habits of thinking. As a rule a teacher will get 
just about as good recitations as are good his assign- 
ments. The teacher by skillful assignments can lead 
his pupils to think almost anything he wants them to 
think. Most of us can remember when the teacher 



li)H STUDIES IN PEDAGOGY. 

said as the assignment, "Take the next lesson." And 
it is no trouble also to remember that we did not 
know liow to take it, when to take it, or where to take 
it, and that we were no better after taking than be- 
fore taking. The most powerful means in the hands 
of the teacher for making his work a success are the 
assignments. 

(bmmon ErrovH in Conduct itu/ the Becitatlon. — The 
following are some of the most prevalent errors which 
teachers are i^rone to fall into and which teachers 
should studiously avoid: 1. Giving assignments not 
sufticiently definite. -. Permitting students to wan- 
der from the question. 3. Repeating questions be- 
fore giving students time to answer. 4. Repeating 
the answer. .">. Galling on the student before asking 
the question, ti. Td/king too nivch. 7. Not holding 
the attention of the whole class. 8. Galling too much 
upim the bright students for recitation. 



